With the rapid development of the machine-building industry in the latter half of the 1950s in the country, Pyongyang University of Mechanical Engineering was built in the Munsu area in East Pyongyang on September 1 1959.

At the time of its establishment, the university had five-storey building No. 1 with a total floor space of 10 900 square metres, 15 laboratories, a 7 800-square metre dormitory and other educational facilities.

It improved its educational environment and conditions and constantly increased its teaching capacity in keeping with the requirements of the developing times.

In 2015 it developed into a comprehensive university training mechanical engineers in all economic sectors including agriculture, fishing and mining industries and transport.

It has now two colleges, over ten faculties, more than 60 departments and six research institutes.

It is staffed with hundreds of lecturers and researchers, with thousands of students enrolled at it.

The university is also a hub of scientific research in the field of mechanical engineering. It has carried out lots of research projects to solve problems arising in reality.

In recent years alone, it contributed to fully automating the twist production process in which manual labour was thought to be inevitable in the food industry sector, developing an automatic hosiery packing machine, 80 hp tractor and 5-ton lorry and modernizing the Pyongyang Trolley Bus Factory at a high level.

Originally founded as Pyongyang University of Light Industry, Pyongyang Han Tok Su University of Light Industry had some 30 lecturers, five faculties, six courses and eleven departments, receiving about 700 students, in its incipiency.

It grew rapidly in scale and capacity along with the development of the country’s light industry, while making remarkable achievements.

An extraordinary achievement made by the university in 1980 was the successful research into the cloth-weaving method based on the Juche fibre of vinalon.

The textile engineering department intensified research into vinalon material for cloth, with the result that it developed mixed yarn of synthetic fibre centring on vinalon and made it possible to produce any kind of fabrics with vinalon.

The university closely combines education and scientific research.

Its lecturers, researchers and students are said to have taken the lion’s share in upgrading equipment and processes of food, textile and other light industry factories and improving the quality of their products.

Most recently, they made a tangible contribution to developing and producing Sonamu-brand satchels carried by all students from primary pupils.

They designed and manufactured a barotor machine and ensured the weaving of canvas for bags based on the inserting of double weft of Tetron rayon in the elastic staff loom, thereby completing the bag cloth production process at the Pyongyang Kim Jong Suk Textile Mill.

They also designed a programmed 3D dynamic bag mould, thus making it possible to develop any kind of bags including briefcase and suitcase as well as school bags.