Kim Jong-un urges North's top university to build 'powerful and prosperous' country

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited Kim Il Sung University to mark its 80th founding anniversary, urging the school to help build “a powerful and prosperous” country, state media reported Thursday.

Calling the university the country's “highest dignified educational institution,” Kim told the faculty and students on Wednesday that the school “should stand in the vanguard of the honorable struggle” for that goal, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

Founded on Oct. 1, 1946, and named after Kim's grandfather and North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung, the university is the North's first institution of higher education.

“The building of an educational power, a sci-tech power and a talent power are the three essential requirements and basic guarantee for the development of Korean-style socialism insisted by our Party at present,” he said.

He described “educational development and sci-tech sovereignty” as “the most important and decisive” factors for the country's present and future.

Kim also called for a “new phase of socialist education in the new era with high and qualitative development of the university.”

In addition, he urged the school to expand exchanges with “elite universities and science research institutes in other countries” as the country's “finest” educational institution.

Yonhap