[Editorial] Pro-North Teachers?

It turned out that the Busan branch of the Korean Teachers & Educational Worker’s Union (KTEWU) has used teaching materials that were copied after North Korea’s history books to lecture its member teachers in the “Unification School” that it runs. KTEWU said that it made those materials and held lecturing sessions because teachers wanted to have proper knowledge on North Korea. However, the teaching materials KTEWU made have a big problem in that neither objective reviews were done nor critical approaches were taken in making those materials; hence the unscreened copy of the historical view of the North Korean regime.

North Korean history books describe the modern history of the Korean peninsula from the perspective of the Juche ideology and even contain stories that were cooked up for the sake of plausibility. Copying uncritically what North Korean history books say and spreading it will end up educating teachers in pro-North mindsets, instead of giving them “proper knowledge on North Korea.” More than two thirds of what those teaching materials of KTEWU describe was copied from a North Korean history book titled “Modern Chosun History” with no change. These materials even give an account of Kim Il Sung’s speech broadcast on June 26, 1950 in which he said, “Our soldiers should demonstrate their brevity and willingness to sacrifice in order to liberate our brethrens in south from reactionary politics,” implying that South Korea needed North Korean soldiers to come to its rescue and liberate it, and South Korean people were victims of reactionary politics.

What these contents do is dismiss the legitimacy of South Korea and justify the historical view of North Korea. Moreover, they mention Kim Il Sung’s feats that he allegedly achieved while “fighting against Japanese colonial rule.” Those alleged achievements of Kim include the organization of the Chosun revolutionary army and the formation of the liberation of the fatherland association, both of which academia has officially recognized as having been cooked up.

The teaching materials say, “The military-first politics of North Korea are so politically unique that it’s unprecedented in the political history of the world.” In those materials, there cannot be found any critical view of that the Kim Jong Il regime inflicted severe suffering on North Korean people while preoccupying itself with strengthening its military forces. What is more disturbing is that the KTEWU, which is in charge of the education of our next generation, circulated these absurd and biased materials with no qualms whatsoever, beautified North Korea’s history, and praised it.

KTEWU has focused its efforts on the so-called “unification education,” organizing a unification committee internally. Whenever there was a politically sensitive issue, it had what it called “opportunity classes” to discuss “peace” and “unification.” Great causes indeed. But beneath the surface of these great causes, ideological education which instilled pro-North and anti-American mindsets in its participants was done. Nothing shows this more clearly than these teaching materials.

KTEWU should make its position clear. Does it intend to imbue our children with North Korea’s historical view and grow them into “the North Korean regime’s subjects?” KTEWU is two-faced: it engages in these kinds of instigation and brainwashing on one hand, while it tries hard to keep its special interests on the other. Will the government continue to be swayed by KTEWU? Or will it show its strict face to KTEWU? The people are watching and the government should make a choice.