When we mention Michael Jackson, we get a room full of blank faces. We try again.
“Raise your hands if you’ve heard of Michael Jackson.” Not a single arm goes up.
You might have thought students would have found out about Michael Jackson from the Internet – unlike most of North Korea it is available at the university.
But in the computer room a female minder censors all internet access. It is strictly no email, no social media, and no international news.
In North Korea, only absolute devotion to the supreme leader, and praise of all things North Korean, is permitted. According to human rights groups, that devotion is the result of conditioning from birth – and fear of execution or imprisonment in inhumane labour camps.
“The key question is whether the university is training those young Koreans most likely to change the country in a positive way, or those most likely to perpetuate the current regime,” says Greg Scarlatoiu of the Washington-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.
“If the price to pay for being allowed to establish a presence inside North Korea is ignoring the country’s egregious human rights violations, I will say that price is too high.”
Lord Alton chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea and is a patron of the university.
He hopes the experiment could kick-start more fundamental change and alter the mindset of a generation.
“You have to start somewhere. This isn’t an excuse for appeasement, which I’m totally opposed to.
“This is a form of engagement in order to try and change things.”
But are the students actually interested in embracing change? Even during the guarded conversations that we are allowed, it is clear some students are keen to connect with the outside world.
“We are learning foreign languages because foreign language is the eye of scientists,” says one undergraduate.
“And learning a language is learning a culture. I want more of that.”
Panorama: Educating North Korea, BBC One, Monday 3 February at 20:30 GMT and then available in the UK on the BBC iPlayer.