Today is Children’s Day in South Korea. Though the recent sinking of the Sewol, a ferry with hundreds of young people on board, has put the nation into mourning, playgrounds and zoos across the country are still busy on this national holiday, as parents take their children on rare outings away from their school studies.
For the children of North Korea, meanwhile, it is just a normal
day. Instead, the nation celebrates International
Children’s Day, a celebration in the former socialist world that falls on June 1st, and Chosun Children’s Union Day on June 6th.
International Children’s Day extends to elementary school and beyond in South
Korea, but International Children’s Day mostly targets preschoolers.
Daycare centers and kindergartens are given the day off while children attend events where, among other things, they show loyalty to the nation’s leaders. The events also give the chance to perform song and dance pieces, as well as some more dubious “entertainments”; it is even said that dolls in the likeness of American soldiers are sometimes brought out for children to attack.
Requesting anonymity, one defector told Daily NK, “International Children’s
Day means something different in the South than it does the North, but children still look forward to it a great deal. Markets are bustling that
day.”
Continuing on, the source added, “Just like in South Korea,
parents love their children so much and want to make them happy, so they buy them new clothes to wear or give them money for ice cream. Mind you, upper class children get expensive clothes or
Nike shoes or whatever, but most people can only afford cheaper low quality clothes because it’s still a struggle just to get by.”
Moreover, “Wealthy parents give bribes to schoolteachers on this day to
help their kids get ahead, as well as preparing lunch boxes for them. This is the kind of day where most people want to
give their children snacks to their hearts’ content, although for a lot of families that is
just not realistic.”
Even attending a child’s performance is a luxury
for some parents. According to the source, “In a grade of 35 children, maybe only
7 parents, 10 at the most, will go to see their kids perform. Most have to go out and
earn money.”
North Korea also marks Children’s Union Day on June 6th, which celebrates the establishment of the Young Pioneer Corps in 1946. On this day, the newly initiated are
presented with a red necktie from their teachers before repeating an oath of loyalty
in front of portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.
Around 20,000 young representatives were summoned to Pyongyang in 2012 to take part in a mass event to mark the 66th anniversary of the founding of
the Union, whereupon “tears of passion endlessly
flowed out of thanks and appreciation toward General
Kim Jong Eun,” according to state media.
However, there was a backstory of corruption to tell. One former high-ranking North Korean now living in the
South explained, “Of the 20,000 selected [for the event], most were the
children of elites and only a very small number were children of laborers and farmers. All were there at the expense of their
parents, who had to spend US$400-500 each in bribes and new clothes.”
“Holding mass political events like Children’s Union Day is intended to incite loyalty in the youth, as they are the ones who will preserve the regime in future. From an early age young recruits have to say that they would die for Kim Jong Eun,” the defector further
assessed.
