Under the Benevolent Care: DPRK

-Country Prioritizing Education

 April 1 is the school opening day in DPRK.

 The start of a new semester unfolds with it an unusually delightful scene across the country - happy children going to school dressed up in new school uniforms; they carry Sonamu schoolbags on their backs, filled with Mindlle stationery. Looking at the bright, happy faces clad in school uniforms, parents feel gratitude towards the country for its care bestowed upon the future generation.

 Providing school children with well-fitting school uniforms – this is the eternal policy of our Republic. And modern factories have been built to produce attractive notebooks, school bags and other stationery bearing the brands of Mindlle and Sonamu, ensuring favourable conditions for studies of young people.

 The DPRK has excellent educational conditions that allow all children to learn to their hearts’ content and bring their hopes and talents into full bloom, thanks to the world’s most superior universal 12-year compulsory education system.

 The universal 12-year compulsory education system is divided into 1 year of pre-schooling and 11 years of school education. The curricula include the teaching of general elementary knowledge, secondary basic knowledge, and specialized basic knowledge, together with an advanced course for select students with unusual talent.

 Dozens of teachers’ colleges and universities of education have been established throughout the country to train teachers for the primary and secondary schools engaged in the universal 12-year compulsory education.

 Competent teachers, graduates of the universities which are well equipped with facilities for multimedia education, virtual reality education and intellectual education, are providing solid foundations of knowledge for preschool children and primary and secondary schoolchildren to occupy the fortress of cutting-edge science.

 Since the beginning of its foundation, our country has directed great attention to educational work, regarding the education of young generation as an important matter affecting the destiny of the country.

 In 1956, soon after the completion of post-war reconstruction that followed the three-year war, our country set a precedent in Asia for adopting and implementing the policy on compulsory primary education.

 In 1959 universal compulsory education system was introduced, in 1967 universal 9-year compulsory technical education system and in the mid-1970s universal 11-year compulsory education system.

Thanks to the superior educational system, the working people’s levels of general knowledge and basic technical knowledge have surpassed at a rapid pace compared with those in the countries with the fee-paying education system, and our country has emerged as an intellectual power with millions of learned people.

 Our country performed an unprecedented miracle in the world history of economic construction by completing the industrialization in 14 years and built socialism by dint of self-reliance. And it could possess a reliable war deterrent. These are all attributable to the potent talent forces trained through the excellent educational system and the policy of our country to prioritize education.

 A thriving future is always reserved for the country which prioritizes education. This also goes to the government that sets great store by talented scientists and technicians trained through the excellent educational system.

 This is the eternal truth recorded in the annals of history of our country - the country of education.

-Paternal Love

 Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un cherishes and loves the children most in the world and gives them all the fatherly affection. His warm love for the children is also permeated in the modernly-built Okryu Children’s Hospital.

The modern and advanced Okryu Children’s Hospital, a palace of love and home of welfare, was constructed by the personal initiative of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un in October, 2013. He personally selected the site of the construction and assumed the role of the designer, supervisor and builder.

 The hospital provides all the necessary facilities for the children including “education room for kindergarteners”, “primary school classroom” and “middle school classroom” so that they can receive medical care free from cares and worries and study to their satisfaction.

 On March 21, 2014, 9 years ago, the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un visited the hospital in person to check on its operation and treatment of the children though he was busy with the many affairs of the state.

He asked the hospital staff which medicine is lacking most in treatment and prevention of illnesses, and what the common illness of the children is. He also asked whether there is any broken equipment after the inauguration of the hospital and inquired in detail with fatherly love on other matters arising in the daily operation of the hospital.

 After receiving a detailed report on medical treatment and operation of hospital from the staff of the hospital, Comrade Kim Jong Un sincerely said that even though the food situation of our country is tight, the child in-patients should be provided with enough food and meat. Then he took benevolent measures of providing the hospital with means of transportation and equipment needed for hospital’s operation.

 He warmly said that that the medical workers of the hospital must bear in mind the noble will of President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il, who loved the children throughout their life, and perform the medical service with high sense of responsibility as well as warm devotion, so that the Okryu Children’s Hospital become a hospital that promotes the health of our children and proves in practice that our Party’s healthcare policy is the one that truly serves our people, rather than a mere propaganda hospital.

 Indeed, the Okryu Children’s Hospital is the very representation of the noble love for future generations cherished by Comrade Kim Jong Un, who regards the care for children as happiness, rather than trouble, no matter how hard it may be.

 That is why foreign friends who witnessed our children’s happiness expressed their excited feeling as follows: Today I can truly understand why the Korean children are called “kings” and “queens” of the country; if I have a chance to be born again, I wish to be born as a Korean child; Korean children are the happiest children in the world.

 The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un regards our children as the most the most precious treasures of priceless worth and the entirety of hope and future, and renders his unstinting paternal love for posterity. Thanks to his noble view on posterity and future, the future looks promising for our children who enjoy every bliss in the socialist paradise.

-Baby Homes and Orphanages in DPRK

 These photos shows baby homes and orphanages in Pyongyang, capital city of the DPRK, and in Wonsan in the east coast of the DPRK.