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.