Joong Ang Daily
6/16/2006
Seven North Korean teachers attended a middle school class here yesterday to watch the presentation of lessons on Korean reunification prepared jointly by North and South Korean educators.
This is the second year that teachers on both sides of the DMZ have collaborated on lessons to mark the anniversary of the 2000 inter-Korean summit, but it was the first time North Korean teachers have watched the presentation of the material in the South.
At the Mujin Middle School library yesterday, 36 second-year students met Kim Song-chol, the head of the North Korean Educational and Cultural Workers’ Union, six other teachers and two North Korean reporters. Kwon Su-hee, 27, an ethics teacher at the school, presented the lesson.
Bolstered by a video clip of the meeting of the two Korean leaders, Kim Jong-il and Kim Dae-jung, in 2000, Ms. Kwon described the background and repercussions of the meeting. Another video clip showed North Korean students in their classrooms.
“Children in North Korea are not different from you,” the video’s narrator said. “They are your friends with innocent smiles and dreams.”
Some students, however, appeared puzzled by the material. “I couldn’t fully understand the class,” one said, “but I think that North and South Korean students would have more in common if we studied the same things.”
Kim Young-sik, the principal of Moranbong First Middle School in Pyongyang, said, “I felt like I was watching students at my school. We should make this joint class work, because Korean unification depends on our students.”
