The central headquarters of the North Korean Socialist Patriotic Youth League recently ordered students to help improve the morale of the factory workers who make their school uniforms. While the youth league wants students to show appreciation, these programs are placing a burden on both young students and their parents.
“The central headquarters of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League has instructed members of schools and branches in each region to personally visit the factories that manufacture the clothes, shoes, bags, and school supplies that are part of the school uniforms to be distributed, express their appreciation to the factory workers and promote the superiority of the socialist system,” a source in Pyongyang told Daily NK on Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
As a result, from Jan. 26 to the Lunar New Year in February, the local branches of the youth league and the propaganda units of each school are planning to organize visits to light industry factories mobilized for the production of school uniforms and hold various activities to raise the spirits of the workers.
In particular, the youth league has instructed schools and local branches to not only sing songs and put on shows during their visits to factories and enterprises, but also to prepare bouquets, snacks, and meals that can be of practical help to the workers.
“You must help them in their work and clean the factory workplace and premises so that your gratitude will truly touch the workers’ hearts,” the youth league stressed.
The youth league said that the purpose of having the students who receive the uniforms entertain the factory workers who make the uniforms was to instill in the children patriotism and gratitude to the Workers’ Party.
As a result, the propaganda detachments and branches of the Korean Children’s Union and the youth league in Pyongyang’s primary and middle schools are organizing factory visits to raise the morale of the workers.
At Chang Hyon Elementary School in Moranbong County, for example, first and second-grade students visited a shoe and garment factory on Unification Street, where they gave a concert and distributed bouquets to the workers. The young students even put their tiny hands to work cleaning the factory despite the cold weather, which the older workers found very moving.
Schools in downtown Pyongyang – not only in Moranbong, but also in Mangyongdae, Taesong, Tongdaewon, and Central districts – sent students to local factories to support the workers.
Since the youth league reports these programs to the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, the various schools are said to be competing for the best program.
Much of the burden falls on parents
But parents are unhappy that their children are involved in such activities. While it is praiseworthy to visit factories and encourage the people who make their school uniforms, the cost of such programs is a burden on parents.
“People can’t understand how children are supposed to provide the snacks, food, and bouquets on their own. In the end, it is all a job for their parents,” the source said.
In fact, the students’ parents are responsible not only for preparing the workers’ gifts but also for hiring the buses and trucks that transport their children to the factories, the source said.
Even the factory workers feel bad that young children have to put on a propaganda show and clean the dusty facilities in the cold.
“People don’t understand the point of putting on something that’s uncomfortable for everyone involved. They don’t see how dragging children into a factory benefits the factory workers,” the source said.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un told a year-end plenary session of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea that providing students with the necessary school supplies is the continuous and eternal policy of the party and the government, and ordered that the production of uniforms be vigorously pursued this year as an “all-party and all-state project.”
While the North Korean authorities emphasize the need to provide students with high-quality uniforms and school supplies as part of the mission of caring for the future generation, the actual burden of producing these uniforms and supplies appears to be falling on the backs of young children.
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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