Ahead of the Day of the Sun (Apr. 15, a holiday celebrating the birthday of Kim Il Sung), North Korea has ordered that the country’s youth be further indoctrinated with an anti-American and anti-imperialist class consciousness, Daily NK has learned.
“The Central Committee ordered the Socialist Patriotic Youth League at the end of March to hold a series of training sessions for the Day of the Sun, noting that it is more important than ever to inculcate anti-American and anti-imperialist class consciousness in young people in view of the current political situation,” a source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Apr. 5, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Given the current political tensions, the North Korean authorities seem eager to stir up hostility toward South Korea and the U.S. in order to strengthen loyalty to the regime and prevent ideological laxity among the youth.
According to the source, the North Korean authorities have outlined the main problems hindering efforts to raise anti-American and anti-imperialist class consciousness among the youth.
First, young people are only interested in earning money and maintaining their own economic stability when they should be armed with socialist convictions and brimming with loyalty to the party and the state.
The authorities emphasized the need for the youth league to hold more training sessions on ideology and class consciousness so as not to disappoint the Workers’ Party in its desire for the loyalty of the youth on whom the country’s future depends.
In particular, these training sessions should mention that Ukraine, which has been dependent on the U.S., is losing its war against Russia, while impressing upon the youth that imperial fantasies have fatal consequences.
To this end, the North Korean authorities ordered that model class-consciousness training sessions be held in every province and that instructors organize lectures and debates to instill in the youth a strong hostility toward the United States, Japan and South Korea (which North Korea calls a “puppet state”).
As a result, the North Hamgyong Province branch of the youth league decided to hold its model training session at the Musan Mine, and officials from the city and county branches of the league dutifully gathered at the mine in late March. The training session conducted by the Musan Mine branch of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) served as a model for other branches of the KPA.
Relatedly, the North Korean authorities stressed that the various branches of the youth league must take the initiative in finding various ways to improve the quality of the anti-American, anti-imperialist and anti-Korean class-consciousness education instead of relying entirely on the materials provided by the central committee and the provincial leadership.
The youth league branches were also told that class consciousness education should not be regarded as a temporary but as part of ongoing efforts with additional sessions to be held on a monthly or quarterly basis.
North Korea’s government has also instructed various levels of the party hierarchy to help organize intensive class-consciousness training sessions that include performances by experts and artists such as orators and singers.
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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