The Socialist Women’s Union of Korea recently held political lectures for its members on “signs of a powerful socialist state and the position of building a strong nation,” Daily NK has learned.
According to a Daily NK source in South Pyongan province recently, the Socialist Women’s Union in Anju conducted a one-hour political lecture on this topic on May 17.
The lecturer described “building a powerful socialist state” as a “worthy struggle to realize the people’s ideals and desires in an independent fatherland with strong national power where everything flourishes,” calling it an important mission ordered by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
The lecture centered on two main themes: “standards to evaluate national power” and “signs of a powerful socialist state.”
For evaluating national power, the lecturer said the primary standard was the “smiles of the people,” which depended on “superior leadership” and “great ideology.”
The lecturer then outlined five indicators of North Korea’s status as a powerful socialist nation: being a “powerful politically ideological state,” “powerful military state,” “powerful economic state,” “powerful science and technology state,” and “powerful space exploration state.”
Throughout the presentation, the lecturer repeatedly emphasized that North Korea had become militarily strong by rapidly developing advanced weapons, including nuclear ones. The Socialist Women’s Union members generally agreed with claims about North Korea’s military prowess.
“When the lecturer stressed the greatness of the leader, most Socialist Women’s Union members seemed indifferent, but during the section about North Korea’s growing military strength, they appeared proud, with some even saying, ‘It really does seem like we’ve become a militarily powerful state,'” the source said.
Propaganda considered “empty talk” by some
Recent military news coverage, including reports on weapons development and deployment, has convinced many citizens that North Korea has become a “nation that foreign forces can’t touch because of its growing military power,” according to the source.
“The supreme leader frequently visits munitions factories, and with images of weapons tests and military drills constantly appearing in the Rodong Sinmun newspaper and on TV, people now seem to believe that North Korea has become a militarily powerful state,” the source explained.
However, the lecture focused mainly on propaganda rather than concrete achievements, frustrating some attendees.
“Even though they claimed we’d become a powerful socialist state, it was just empty talk with no specific numbers or results, so many said the lecture was pointless,” the source said. “Several Socialist Women’s Union members privately expressed hope that North Korea actually was a powerful economic state, though they knew it wasn’t true.”
