UK KFA on Open University's Non Admittance of Students from the DPRK

KOREAN FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION
 27th of July 2017
The UK Korean Friendship Association is shocked to learn the Open University of the UK, which is famous for being open to all, actually refuses to allow admissions from students from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea . It has recently been revealed that students from the DPRK along with students from Cuba and a number of countries are precluded from applying to take academic courses at the Open University!
  This makes a mockery of the whole ethos of the Open University which is meant to be open to all . The Open University is one of the biggest universities in the UK and was founded in 1969 to give access to higher education . Excluding admissions from students from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea goes against the ethos on which the university was founded . Such a measure is profoundly discriminatory and goes against equality and diversity which the university claims to uphold .
  When the UK established diplomatic relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea some 17 years ago , the UK side told the DPRK that must allow their students to study at British universities . However such a thing is not possible when one of the largest universities in the UK shuts it doors to students of the DPRK . How can the UK claim that it is carrying out 
educational and cultural exchanges with the DPRK which DPRK students are banned from the 
Open University ? This this a blatant mockery of UK-DPRK relations as well as rank hypocrisy.
   The DPRK itself has over 240 universities and institutes of higher learning . It is keen to promote academic exchange with other countries but the ban imposed by the Open University 
prevents academic exchange between Britain and the DPRK . Universities in the DPRK such 
as KIM IL SUNG university accept and in fact welcome students from the UK , so why is the UK not reciprocating?
 It is indeed shameful that the Open University has chosen to join the witch-hunt against People's Korea and is apparently implementing sanctions that have no relevance to academic studies . 
 What of the Open University 's much proclaimed and hallowed 'academic freedom' ? 
The UK Korean Friendship Association totally condemns this discriminatory and reactionary 
measure of the Open University which is blocking academic and cultural exchange between the  DPRK and UK.
UK KFA