I forget where I read it but I'm pretty sure as part of their education they have to learn a foreign language. I think they mentioned something about this on vbs.tv they had a special called Vice Guide to North Korea http://www.vbs.tv/watch/the-vice-guide-to-travel/vice-guide-... Where they traveled around and filmed for a few days.
But, the French speaker was especially surprising, and I would have expected more Chinese influence than there seemed to be (linguistically).