North Korean schools shift focus to Kim Jong Un idolization

North Korea’s cabinet-level education ministry has ordered schools nationwide to devote more of their daily ideology sessions to Kim Jong Un’s personal achievements, scaling back content on his predecessors, a Daily NK source said, in a move that appears aimed at deepening the cult of personality around the North Korean leader.

“In mid-June, the education ministry sent a directive to the provincial education bureau telling it to actively instill in students the revolutionary activities and achievements of the Marshal,” a source in South Hamgyong province told Daily NK on Wednesday, using a title commonly applied to Kim Jong Un. “It said to reduce content on party policy or on the forerunner leaders and focus intensively on the Marshal instead,” referring to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.

North Korean schools hold roughly five minutes of what is called a “party ideology session” before regular classes begin, using a booklet known as “365 Days of Study” to teach students about the revolutionary activities of Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un, along with party policy. According to the source, that session is now being devoted heavily to promoting Kim Jong Un specifically.

The updated study material reportedly covers Kim Jong Un’s education reform drive, his 20×10 regional development policy, a program to build modern factories in 20 counties per year over a decade, along with construction of the Samjiyon tourist zone and the Wonsan-Kalma coastal tourist zone, and a planned memorial hall honoring North Korean troops sent to fight abroad.

“In the past, the revolutionary achievements of past leaders were taught together, but since the order came down to focus intensively on the Marshal’s activities and achievements, the material keeps growing, and it’s putting more pressure on teachers who have to memorize it all,” the source said.

Teachers strain to keep predecessors and successor straight

A teacher at a school in Hamhung’s Sapho district described the difficulty of the assignment. “The list of the Marshal’s revolutionary activities that we have to pass on to students keeps growing, and it’s easy to mix them up with the achievements of the past leaders, so a lot of teachers just lump them together and call them all ‘the Marshals,'” the teacher said, adding that this shortcut usually goes unnoticed unless an inspection is underway.

Because inspections remain a risk, teachers still feel pressure to master the growing volume of material in precise detail, according to the teacher, who said many struggle to draw a clear line between the achievements of Kim Jong Un and those of his predecessors when explaining the material to students.

The source said the education ministry has framed the effort as essential to completing the “Our State First” ideology, North Korea’s official doctrine asserting the superiority of its own political and social system, and has called on teachers to strengthen their role as “professional revolutionaries.”

The shift reflects a broader trend of building a personal cult around Kim Jong Un that is increasingly distinct from reverence for his predecessors. Analysts see the push as an effort to instill loyalty in the younger generation and reinforce North Korea’s “unitary leadership system,” under which absolute authority is concentrated in the Kim family line.

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