North Korea officials caught stealing and swapping school equipment in Sunchang township

Officials and enterprise managers in North Korea’s South Pyongan province have been caught in a school corruption scheme, stealing and swapping out electronics intended for high school students and undermining the state’s education support program.

A source in South Pyongan province said on Thursday that after the annual rice-planting mobilization ended and senior middle school students returned to class, the Sunchang township education department began reviewing the supply status of equipment needed for elective-subject classes. The review, launched in early June, revealed that some items had quietly vanished.

North Korea introduced a national elective-subject curriculum this year, under which senior middle schools, roughly equivalent to high schools, are required to offer specialized coursework for the first time. State institutions and enterprise units were assigned to supply the participating schools with flat-screen televisions, computers, and laboratory equipment.

On paper, the supplies had been delivered in full. But when education officials cross-checked the documentation against what was actually on site, the numbers did not match and the condition of some equipment was poor.

Corruption confirmed in follow-up investigation

The discrepancies pointed to more than a clerical error or shipping mistake. A follow-up investigation by the Sunchang township education department confirmed that deliberate diversion and switching had taken place.

In some cases, officials at state institutions and enterprise units sold school-bound electronics to private traders or market vendors, pocketing the proceeds. In other cases, school staff members swapped the supplied equipment for old, broken devices from their own homes and then reported, without cause, that the delivered items had malfunctioned.

The education department concluded that the equipment had been diverted to serve private interests rather than reaching students, and classified the misconduct not as simple supply mismanagement but as a direct attack on the state’s education support program. The Sunchang township party committee, the local organ of the Workers’ Party of Korea that oversees party affairs at the township level, was briefed on the findings and reacted with fury.

“This year we introduced the elective-subject system, but classes were struggling to operate because of equipment shortages,” the party committee said, according to the source. “Was the misconduct of those involved the reason behind that?”

The township party committee has called for a comprehensive review of the school support program structure and directed authorities to re-examine the supply chain through which educational materials flow from state institutions and enterprise units to schools.

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