The North Korean authorities recently ordered members of the Women’s Union to contribute money in preparation for the ‘6th Congress of the Korean Democratic Women’s Union’ that was recently held in Pyongyang. Threats were made to restrict market activities for individuals if such contributions were not forthcoming.
“Instructions were sent to the unit heads of the Women’s Union participating in the congress informing them to ‘prepare their own travel expenses.’ In addition, the unit heads had to collect 5,000-10,000 KPW from each member and low-level cell in order to fulfill the demands made by the authorities,” a Daily NK source in Ryanggang Province reported on November 21.
“Some Union members were threatened with penalties including suspension of market activities, after saying that they could not afford to pay the money.”
Sources in North Hamgyong Province and South Pyongan Province corroborated this information.
The Korean Democratic Women’s Union is a core component of the Worker’s Party founded in 1945. It was created to support and enforce the policies of the Party, and in many cases is charged with carrying out relief activities. KCNA stated of the organization, “After liberation of the country, he [Kim Il Sung] founded the Women’s Union before the other working people’s organizations, indicating the road ahead for it in every period and at every stage of the revolution and construction, and wisely led it so that it could admirably perform its role as a transmission belt and reliable assistant of the Party.”
The roles of Women’s Union members has been continuously emphasized by the Kim Jong Un regime to include the establishment and operation of orphanages and preschools.
“Each Union member was asked to contribute 3,000-5,000 KPW with barely two day’s notice, supposedly for coal mining, orphanages, and military costs. Members will be pressured to pay more money by the state now that the congress has finished,” the source added.
As a result, there were reportedly few women who welcomed the Congress, the first of its kind held in 33 years. According to KCNA on November 19, a letter from Kim Jong Un was read during the first day of the Congress, stating that the Women’s Union shock brigade movement is now in full swing in several sectors of socialist construction, and represents a women’s mass movement of loyalty geared toward rendering services to build a powerful socialist country and improving the people’s standard of living.” It went on further to state, “The Women’s Union is a body for political and ideological education and its basic duty is to conduct ideological education. These organizations should hold fast to ideology, always paying primary concern to ideological education.”
“Union members remarked amongst themselves that these [aforementioned] slogans and comments simply mean that they should expect to end up on the receiving end of more demands for money,” the source added, noting that the loyalty of Union members for the regime continues to dwindle.
“The general response from member’s toward the regime is that the Party has never resolved our hardships but continues to demand further contributions. It will not be easy for the regime to induce loyalty from women who have taken up roles as breadwinners for their families.”
“The regime seems to have held the congress to shore up its control over those who are active in the markets, but there are an increasing number of women who don’t see the necessity of the Women’s Union. As a result, the Union is gradually becoming less significant, despite pacifying efforts by the state, which included changing the name of the organization from ‘Korean Democratic Women’s Union’ to ‘Korean Socialist Women’s Union’,” the source added.
