A school in Russia's Far East has introduced a new course to help students deepen the “time-tested friendship” between their country and North Korea, a news report said.
Twenty students will take the new course, starting this semester at school No. 5 in the city of Khabarovsk, although attendance may later be expanded and the Korean language may be added to instruction, the local Gubernia news portal reported Tuesday, citing Russian and North Korean officials who spoke at a festive ceremony announcing the new class.
“The opening of such a class is yet one more friendly act [to go] into the coffer of relations between Russia and North Korea,” Khabarovsk Mayor Alexander Sokolov was quoted as saying. “The friendship of our people has been tested by time, starting from the years during World War II when Russian soldiers came to assist North Koreans.”
“Over time, that friendship has only grown stronger,” he added, Gubernia reported. “Our task is to strengthen our warm relations at all levels, starting with students and ending with cities.
Emphasizing the desired friendship, a school wall has been decorated with portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin, shown in photos posted by Gubernia.
The course “will help the children of our countries to get in touch with each others' traditions and culture,” a North Korean consular official was quoted as saying.
At least one other school in Khabarovsk has also been offering a course in Russian-North Korean friendship, Gubernia reported.
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