The Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), the first joint university between South and North Korea, will produce its first graduates.
 
The Northeast Asia Foundation for Education and Culture, which runs the university with North Korean authorities, said Tuesday that the graduation ceremony will take place in Pyongyang Wednesday. Forty-four students will receive masters degrees in information and communication technology, industry and management and agricultural engineering and food processing. It said 150 students will also receive undergraduate degrees by the end of fall.
  
About 100 people will attend the graduation ceremony including founding President Kim Chin-kyung who is a Korean-American. The function will double as a groundbreaking ceremony of the medical school.
 
However, the North Korean government is said to have banned South Koreans from attending the ceremony as relations between Seoul and Pyongyang have been strained.
 
PUST opened its doors three and a half years ago in October 2010. It is the only private university in North Korea, founded by South Korea's Northeast Asia Foundation for Education and Culture and the North's education ministry. Professors from the United States, Canada and Britain teach the students, all of whom are North Korean, in English.