North Korea student punished for birthday party, parents and teacher hauled in too

A high school student in Hamhung city, South Hamgyong province, was subjected to a public criticism session in June 2026 after inviting classmates home for a birthday party, with the student’s homeroom teacher and parents also called in for reprimand. School authorities characterized the gathering as an act of “decadent behavior” incompatible with a socialist way of life.

A source in South Hamgyong province told Daily NK on Friday that the student, enrolled at a senior middle school (the equivalent of a high school) in Hamhung, had invited most of the class home for a birthday dinner on June 13, with only an absent classmate excluded. The student and guests ate together, and with a speaker amplifier turned on, spent several hours singing and dancing.

The gathering came to the attention of the school and the local neighborhood watch unit after someone reported it, and the situation escalated from there.

North Korea has a longstanding tradition of inviting acquaintances home to share food, sing, and dance on birthdays. Authorities have long treated this practice as an antisocialist act, however, regularly cracking down on what they refer to as birthday “feasting” as behavior incompatible with socialist norms.

“In the past, if someone threw a noisy birthday party, almost no one would report it,” the source said. “But recently an atmosphere has developed where even people who fail to report such things can be held responsible, so reports are increasing.” The homeroom teacher had briefly attended the gathering and eaten with the students, which the source said made the teacher’s situation considerably worse. The student’s parents were also called in and told they had failed to properly raise and guide their child.

Criticism sessions follow, but few take them to heart

The homeroom teacher was summoned by the school principal and strongly rebuked: “The person who should have been preventing students from holding feasts and taking corrective action actually went and picked up a spoon at the table — how can you call yourself a teacher?” The teacher is reportedly set to face political criticism at this month’s monthly self-criticism meeting, a compulsory ideological review session held for all workers and organization members in North Korea in which individuals are expected to account for their conduct over the preceding month.

The student’s parents were called in to the school and separately to the local neighborhood administrative office, where officials told them they had failed in their duty to educate their child and correct wrong thinking and behavior. Some neighborhood administrative office officials went further, the source said, reportedly telling the parents: “If you were going to do it, you should have made sure no report came in — why did you let this blow up?”

The student was subjected to concentrated criticism from classmates at a Saturday self-criticism session on June 20, on the grounds of having been infected with decadent behavior. But the source said that both the student being criticized and the classmates delivering the criticism understood the proceedings as a formality. No lasting damage to the student’s friendships or school life was reported afterward.

“Self-criticism sessions are held regularly, but many people treat them as a ritual to get through rather than as a genuine occasion for self-reflection or mutual criticism,” the source said. “Of course, after being criticized like this, everyone will be more careful for a while — but the culture of gathering to share food and celebrate birthdays is not going to disappear.”

North Korean authorities continue to treat birthday parties as antisocialist behavior and crack down on them, but the practice is so deeply embedded in people’s lives that sources say it will persist regardless. The source added that those who heard about the incident were mostly sympathetic to the student. “A lot of people are saying: what’s so wrong about spending your birthday enjoying yourself with friends?” the source said.

Read in Korean

A Note to Readers