Paektu Solidarity Alliance

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea attaches importance to the issue of making the teachers in direct charge of education possess high qualifications for educational development.

The qualifications of a teacher precisely mean the quality of education and the practical abilities of students.

Kim Ok Gyong, Department Head of the Pyongyang University of Fine Arts, says: “Practical ability is the fundamental asset of a teacher. A university teacher must have matchless academic authority in the major field, the ability to solve the problems arising in the reality satisfactorily and the qualifications to give any types of instructions skillfully. Only when relying on solid asset, is it possible to train the students as creative talents.”

Kim Ok Gyong teaches costume art. She maintains that the teachers themselves must be good at creation in order to train the students as creative talents.

Profound knowledge and fertile imagination are prerequisites to costume designing.

She worked hard to possess knowledge of different fields. She never neglected the matters and phenomena, but made a sketch of them in her data book. Once given a task of creation, she would make a deep study of the field concerned and present a novel idea.

It is a unanimous view of the experts that all her costume designs show creative individuality, suit the modern aesthetic tastes and reflect occupational characteristics.

Kim Ok Gyong took the top and first places several times at national industrial art exhibitions.

Her high ability leads to successes in education for training talented personnel to shoulder the future of the industrial art of the country.

She invented many new teaching methods while writing a number of reference books and essays concerning the creation of costume art designs and completing multimedia programs for education with persistent thinking and pursuit.

She teaches the students knacks of conception one by one so that they can exercise their fertile imagination while aspiring after the new all the time without imitation. She also encourages the students to set up a higher standard of creation and fully display their creative and go-ahead spirit.

Under her guidance, students created a lot of wonderful costume designs including those for artistes to give performances and for the players to take part in international games.

Kim Ok Gyong says: “Of course, it is good that I create 10 designs alone. But it is better to transfer my creative talents and wisdom to 10 students so that they can create 10 designs each, I think. Then, 100 designs will be created. The designs created by students seem like mine. This is the pride and pleasure that can be felt only by educators.”

Kim Ok Gyong was awarded the associate professorship in 2020 and the title of Merited Artist in 2022 and selected as one of the 10 best teachers in 2022.

She distinguishes herself as a good educator and talented industrial artist all the more with each passing day.