When one North Korean woman told her father she wanted to study Japanese, he said she would have a brighter future if she pursued English.

The woman went ahead and studied Japanese at a university, and landed a job in Pyongyang that requires the language. However, her father was right. Not all graduates of Japanese have been as lucky as her.

"Job opportunities are limited for a Japanese speaker," the young woman, now in her mid-20s, said. "Some of my friends switched majors or started learning another language because of that."

The slackening demand for Japanese in the job market stems from the deepening political rift and dwindling economic ties between the two nations in recent years, and has caused a sharp drop in the number of students studying the language.