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The North Korean leader was filmed crying during a speech at the National Mothers’ Conference in Pyongyang on December 4 and 5.
The sequence is amazing. Kim Jong Un has been filmed crying as he pleads with North Korean women to have more children. North Korea’s leader wore a handkerchief as he addressed thousands of women at the National Mothers’ Conference held in Pyongyang on December 4 and 5. “Stopping the decline in the birth rate and giving children good care and education are family issues that we must solve with the mothers of our country,” said the dictator, a father of three.
Many in the audience immediately followed suit at this meticulously planned event, the first of its kind to be held in North Korea in 11 years.
Worrying fertility rate
Concerns about declining birthrates in individual states are growing. South Korea’s government estimates that its birth rate has been steadily declining over the past decade, something Kim Jong-un publicly acknowledged in a speech for the first time. According to the UN Population Fund and the World Bank, the birth rate in the North has hovered around 1.8 children per woman since 2020. That’s lower than needed to maintain population stability (2.1), but still higher than South Korea’s (0.78 last year).
According to North Korea’s state media, Kim Jong-un’s country has been working hard to raise its birth rate this year. As mentioned Tea Telegraph: , the government now offers many benefits to families with three or more children. Among them: free preferential housing, government subsidies, food, medicine and even free household goods.
The primacy of communism
In his speech, Kim Jong-un reminded the mothers of his country that their “main revolutionary task” is to teach their offspring “socialist virtues” and instill in them loyalty to the ruling party.
“If a mother does not become a communist, it is impossible for her to raise her sons and daughters to be communists and to turn family members into revolutionaries,” he said, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency reported.
Although he’s not the type to want to be vulnerable, Kim Jong-un has already shed a few tears in public. In October 2020, he broke down in tears in a rare apology for failing to prevent his country from suffering economic turmoil due to the coronavirus pandemic. Most recently, his eyes filled with tears during the July military parade dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.
Source: Le Figaro
