In NK, only a quarter to a third of the people in the country, basically the descendants of people who are related to the people who fought with Kim Il Sung before the Japanese were defeated, are allowed to go to college. As far as I know, it was never anything like that in any of the other Communist countries. (although 'family background' was important.) Other Communist countries all thought (think) that they are too extreme.
They divide the entire nation up into three main (core, wavering and hostile) groups and countless sub-groups based on a family's perceived loyalty. Only members of the 'core' group are allowed to go to college or get a decent job, even under the best of circumstances.
Its likely that access to the resources and skills required to perform any kind of technical profession would be limited to those in this core group. (And can easily be taken away if somebody's family member deviates even slightly from the officially sanctioned behavior, then the entire family has to suddenly move to a rural area.)
If somebody in the 'hostile' or 'enemies' group tried to quire such skills - not having any way to use them in any officially sanctioned good job, (one would also be stuck in a rural area, forbidden to travel to counties that contained the cities - the only places where stores exist where one could buy electronics parts) For learning those new things one would almost certainly come under suspicion for being up to ill good.
Recently a lot of North Korean defectors have written books - some of them are quite good, which explain how people live there.
Good description of the songbun system by Andrei Lankov.
In NK, house is telescreen.
In west, pocket contains telescreen.
I’m not sure who lost or won there.
Really NK are quite technically capable considering the trade embargoes and supply problems they have.
With all the Arduinos and RPis available these days, this project sounds like something a high school kid would tinker with in his spare time, not a PhD level research.
I don't think the North Korean academia is recognized as such elsewhere.
Yet. Remember eastern bloc.