University students bribe their way out of ‘Victory Day’ event

The North Korean authorities ordered a mobilization of young people to participate in celebrations marking the 63rd anniversary of the ceasefire that ended the Korean War in 1953. In reality, however, many university students are paying bribes to avoid the event, according to inside sources. 

The Kim regime refers to this day as “Victory Day in the Great Fatherland Liberation War.” Events such as Victory Day are used to shore up internal unity. However, the average university student does not feel strong loyalty towards the regime these days, and so many students are responding tepidly to the events.   

A source in Ryanggang Province told Daily NK on July 27 of an order mandating all university students attend Victory Day celebrations in the plaza in front of the Kim Jong Suk Art Theater in Hyesan City. The center is named after the first wife of deceased North Korean leader Kim Il Sung.

But, she added, “Many students don’t have any direct experience or concept of the war, so Victory Day holds no special meaning for them. A large portion expressed a preference to not attend related events. This movement underscores the fact that in contemporary North Korea, people are more likely to cautiously evaluate their loyalty to the Korean Workers’ Party. That’s what drives such a large number of students to avoid attending the event.”
According to the source, Kim Jong Un is distinguishing himself from his predecessor and father Kim Jong Il by putting special emphasis on the Victory Day anniversary. Since Kim Jong Un has few tangible achievements to put forward, he is instead using this past ‘victory over enemies’ as a way to stimulate the people’s unity and loyalty. 

However, thanks to the influence of foreign media such as South Korean dramas and radio broadcasts, North Korean university students have started to uncover the fact that North Korea started the war, and that the war is, in fact, not over. [It ended with an armistice signed on July 27, 1953, not a peace treaty]. “That’s why the students find the North Korean propaganda about the war hard to swallow,” the source said, noting that “they attend events like this halfheartedly [if they attend them at all].”

“I spoke with students from the Revolutionary History Department at the Kim Jong Suk University of Education,” a separate source in Ryanggang Province said, “and one student pointed out, ‘We hardly have time to study. I don’t understand why they keep mobilizing us to these events.’”

The student is not alone in this opinion, he explained. Approximately 70% of undergraduate students [from Kim Jong Suk University] paid a bribe to evade the event.  

This is especially significant when considering the types of students able to attend the Kim Jong Suk University of Education. The school is designed to train future Party cadres in the province, and as such the students who are accepted to this institution tend to be well off and from connected families. Instead of expressing loyalty to the Party, many students who did end up attending the Victory Day celebration told the source that they went so they could find a boyfriend or a girlfriend.

Others, including the children of cadres, chose to skip the event so that they could spend time trying to earn money–most commonly by carrying baggage–to put towards school fees. The profits are said to outweigh the bribe burden required to sidestep the celebrations. 
Some were less fortunate. “The authorities declared a period of reinforced security for a 24-hour stretch of time, starting at 5:00 pm on July 26 and ending at 5:00 pm on July 27. This required some students to do security duty after attending the celebratory event. As a result many lamented that ‘nothing is easy, is it?’ as a subversive expression of frustration with the authorities.”