culture

In the DPRK it is a legal requirement and moral duty to respect and take warm care of the aged people as revolutionary seniors and elders.

The Constitution and the law on public health of the DPRK which were adopted already several decades ago stipulate that the state shall take responsible care of the life and health of the aged people.

In 2007, when the aged people’s proportion in the population was increasing day by day and the care for the aged getting more dependent on the family, social and state care and benefits was highlighted as an important social issue, the Law of the DPRK on the Care of the Elderly was instituted to provide a legal guarantee for fully ensuring the rights and interests of the elderly and providing them with better living conditions.

An official of the Central Committee of the Korea Federation for the Care of the Aged said that in the country, thanks to the benefits of the policy on the care of the aged, the number of centenarians increases and all aged people spend their remaining years happily in stable conditions while being provided with their rights and interests under the care of the state. This is unthinkable apart from the socialist system under which people are regarded as the most precious of all, he added.

Thanks to the state’s people-oriented policy on the care of the aged, the care of the elderly has become a matter of importance of the state and the public, leading to the establishment of a social trait of respecting the elderly.

The National Conference of War Veterans is held with splendour as a major national event every year and government organs pay close attention to the care of the elderly to ensure that commercial, public service and transport institutions give preferential treatment to the elderly.

Institutions and enterprises have significant meetings with the aged people who worked there for a long time on the occasion of national holidays and their founding anniversaries.

With living environment improving day by day and social benefits increasing for the elderly, they lead a worthwhile life in their remaining years even in their advanced age. 

“My poetry is not a product of talent or passion. It is a paean to socialism produced by the loving care and benefits of the country which makes sure that even the elderly who have no one to rely on enjoy happiness free from worries,” said Ri Sun Hui, an elderly woman at the Nampho Old People’s Home who has been known to people since beginning to write poems at the age of 60.