[lbo-talk] Multiple child bearing prime duty of women, North Korea

[uvj at vsnl.com]

HindustanTimes.com

Friday, July 30, 2004

Multiple child bearing prime duty of women, says N Korean Govt
Reuters
Seoul, July 30

The duty of North Korean women is to bear many children and raise them as
workers for the communist state, North Korea said on Friday as it celebrated
the anniversary of a gender equality law.

The population of the impoverished, isolated state where famine is believed
to have killed more than a million people since the mid-1990s has shrunk to
about 22.5 million from 22.8 million in 1999, North Korean figures show.

"It is the responsible duty of women to bear many children and raise them as
great workers of Songun Josun," said the Rodong Sinmun, the daily newspaper
of the ruling Workers Party of Korea (WPK).

Songun Josun means "military-first Korea" referring to the North's focus on
military matters.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il describing the North's 1946 gender equality
law as "unthought of in any other country", the newspaper said.

North Korean women are "loyalists true to the WPK's idea of attaching
importance to the army" and "a proud unit keeping the traditional trait of
assisting the army in full bloom", it said in a commentary carried by the
official KCNA news agency.

© HT Media Ltd. 2004.