editorial

Nothing is as beautiful and sacred as the love for and devotion to children.

In the DPRK, it is an important policy of the state to provide children with the best things and it is thoroughly ensured by law.

The unlimited benefits of the state given to the rising generation are reflected in each provision of the Law on the Nursing and Upbringing of Children, Law on the Protection and Promotion of Children’s Rights and Law on Childcare and other laws for the children.

The best things to the children—this is not a writing on a poster or a slogan but a phrase found in the articles of several laws of the DPRK.

Article 12 of the Law on the Nursing and Upbringing of Children stipulates that “State institutions and social cooperative organizations shall be responsible for providing everything necessary for the nursing and upbringing of children on the principle of ‘The best things to the children’.” Article 8 of the Law on the Protection and Promotion of Children’s Rights states that “The state shall ensure that everything necessary for the health, education and life of children is best and provided on a priority basis on the principle of ‘The best things to the children’.”

To provide children with the best things is one of the most important principles that the state has consistently maintained.

The Law on the Nursing and Upbringing of Children was personally worked out by President Kim Il Sung who upheld children as the king of the country all his life.

As the Sixth Session of the Fifth Supreme People’s Assembly adopted the law, the President said:

“Our Party pays particular attention to and makes a great effort in the raising of children not because our country is richer or better-off than others, nor for any information purposes. We are very concerned about how children are brought up and are making great efforts in this area in order to build socialism and communism successfully.”

Thanks to the adoption of the law, the number of nurseries increased by 4.6 times and the number of children attending them 3.6 times in the 1970s as compared with the 1960s.

In retrospect, the DPRK raised state funds already in the period of building a new Korea to build and operate nurseries and kindergartens across the country, thus establishing a system of nursing and bringing up children throughout society. And during the Fatherland Liberation War (1950-1953), a critical period for the destiny of the country, the work of nursing and bringing up children continued without interruption under the special concern of the state.

As in a merry juvenile song which says “Born in the baby palace, growing up in children’s palaces”, palaces for the children, the king of the country, are found in every part of the country.

Not just facilities for the nursing and upbringing of children like nurseries and kindergartens but the Okryu Children’s Hospital where children receive excellent medical service and baby homes and orphanages, the cradles of orphans, have also sprung up under the loving care of the Workers’ Party of Korea.

The Law on the Nursing and Upbringing of Children has been amended and supplemented several times thanks to the benevolent love of President Kim Il Sung, Chairman Kim Jong Il and the respected General Secretary Kim Jong Un who spare nothing for younger generations. And the Law on the Protection and Promotion of Children’s Rights was newly adopted in 2010 to contribute to fully ensuring the rights and interests of children in all fields by further consolidating and developing the system of protecting and promoting their rights.

The socialist policies for children are continuously increasing in number with the passage of time, along with the adoption and enforcement of several laws including the laws on protection of women’s rights and on preferential treatment of families with many children.

The respected General Secretary said at the Third Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the WPK that there is no more important revolutionary work than to bring up children, the future of the country, healthily and properly and it is the most important policy and supreme cherished desire of the Party and the state to provide them with more improved conditions for the upbringing of them at any cost.

The Korean children are growing up healthily and valiantly thanks to the noble intention of the Party that when the children who are born on this land and the rising generations are fed well and grow up healthily in good environment from their childhood, society will be full of that much more vibrant vim and vigour and the DPRK will grow stronger after 20 or 30 years.