Society That Respects Women: DPRK
General Secretary Kim Jong Un Makes Important Speech at 5th National Conference of Mothers
-Women’s Life Flourishes Under Tender Loving Care
Greeting the March 8 International Women’s Day amid the blessings of the whole country, our women look back with deep emotion on the road of their proud development where they were valued as flowers of the family, country and society under the tender loving care of outstanding leaders.
Before liberation, our women had to live in ignorance and darkness suffering ill-treatment and humiliation. They were forced into far more miserable life as they had been deprived of their country. They could be reborn cherishing beautiful dreams and ideals only after President Kim Il Sung liberated the country.
The President regarded our women as powerful force turning one of the wheels of revolution and saw to it that women’s organization was established first among the working people’s organizations after liberation. He also put an end to the history of woman maltreatment stained with bitter tears by promulgating the Law on Gender Equality.
Thanks to such love and trust, our women fully displayed the mettle and might of Korean women everywhere they went. Eventually there emerged the first female deputies, female pilots and female heroes.
Chairman Kim Jong Il carried forward the history of valuing women. He published immortal classic works on the idea of women movement and saw to it that women became the powerful driving force of revolution and construction and the atmosphere of valuing and respecting women pervaded the whole country.
He highly appreciated female soldiers and wives of soldiers, whenever he met them on his field guidance trip. He awarded the title of hero and patriot to those women who made contributions to the prosperity of the motherland and gave birth to many children. He saw the performance held on the occasion of March 8 and congratulated women and gave meaningful “Pomhyanggi” cosmetics as gift.
Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, who carries on the will and affection of the President and Chairman, has enriched the beautiful garden of love and respect for women during the past 10 years and developed the dignity and status of women onto a higher stage.
To glorify the dignified life of our women who are shaping the future of our country, he took measures to designate the Mother's Day and open the National Meeting of Mothers. He also took care of the work of the Breast Tumor Research Institute under the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, Okryu Children’s Hospital, Pyongyang Cosmetics Factory and Pyongyang Children’s Foodstuff Factory for the improvement of health and living conditions of our women. Such stories of devotion are still touching the hearts of all the women across the country.
Under his warm care, ordinary female workers live in palatial dormitory and plain meritorious female workers are now the owners of luxury homes in Kyongru-dong, winning the envy of everyone.
Today, our women are fully determined to accomplish their own missions and duties on the road to the prosperity and development of our great nation, feeling greatly proud and happy as they uphold the beloved fatherly leader.
-Pyongyang Maternity Hospital – Korean Women’s Sweet Home
Today is March 8 International Women’s Day.
Greeting this day, our women are filled with a sense of immense pride of being able to enjoy to the full the benefits of the most superior socialist health care system in the world.
The Pyongyang Maternity Hospital is one source of such pride.
“Not only the Korean women but also foreign women I’ve met all boasted of having given birth at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital blooming with socialist public health measures. The Maternity Hospital really is a wonderful place and no different from what I’ve heard. Like what all Korean women say, I, too, feel like staying at my parents’ house.”
This is what the wife of the former UNICEF deputy representative in the DPRK said after giving birth to an adorable baby boy at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital.
43 years from now, in July 1980, the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital was built as a modern comprehensive hospital devoted to delivery assistance, gynaecological treatment, and other professional medical service, true to the noble intentions of President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il that healthy mothers are a prerequisite for healthy children who will, in turn, guarantee the future of the country.
The hospital covers a total floor space of over 60,000㎡ and the building’s exterior has been design to give an aura of a person embracing the patients with open arms. It has more than 2,000 big and small wards including ones for delivery, surgery, and babies room.
It is completely equipped with 100 kinds of up-to-date medical equipment like multi-purpose digital X-ray machine, digital breast tumour scanner and incubator, as well as a comprehensive patient monitor used for delivery assistance and patient care, unified disinfection system, central oxygen supply system, etc.
Women who check into the hospital receive medical assistance entirely at the expense of the state. That is to say that our country’s overall free medical care system is also being implemented at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital.
Paraplegic women also give birth to healthy babies at Pyongyang Maternity Hospital.
The state provides all women who are delivered of babies at this hospital with many tonics and medicines including bee milk honey. These are all free of charge.
More surprising is the state’s measure of love taken for triplets and quadruplets.
Airplanes fly for triplets or quadruplets and their mothers. Doctors and nurses are provided for each baby. And silver knives for boys and golden rings for girls are given to triplets or quadruplets.
Since the opening of the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, 536 triplets and 7 quadruplets are born. How much money the state has spent for them is hard to calculate.
Medical workers treat patients as their own sisters lest they feel slightest discomfort. This is a special feature peculiar to Pyongyang Maternity Hospital.
A nursing mother came from Samjiyon City, Ryanggang Province located in the northern part of the country said as follows:
I don’t have any siblings or relatives in Pyongyang. But medical workers of the hospital visited me almost every day with foods that suit my taste. And after delivery, they brought me with baby clothes.
She felt no worries or anxieties as if she were at home. So on the day when she left hospital she expressed her feeling of gratitude to our socialist system that all people form one big family and take care one another.
Today, women in our country unanimously call Pyongyang Maternity Hospital “my sweet home” and “palace of love for babies”.
-Flower of Science, Flower of Patriotism
When the international community show an ever-increasing interest in women’s social status and role, the 70th session of the UN General Assembly held in December 2015 proclaimed February 11 “International Day of Women and Girls in Science”.
It is aimed at eliminating all kinds of discrimination against women, recognizing the achievements of women in science, and encouraging and promoting their career development in science.
In our country, women contribute greatly to scientific development thanks to the wise leadership of peerless great men who led our women to be a powerful force turning one of the wheels of the revolution.
Among them is a woman scientist who dedicated her youth and love to the research of new crop species, and a practiced medical woman who made great contributions to promoting the development of medical science in our country.
President Kim Il Sung conferred the title of Labor Hero, the highest honor of the DPRK citizen, on them for their dedications to scientific research.
They are not all.
There is also a female scientist who conducted scientific research for over 20 years in mechanic engineering which is a field deemed challenging even by men. Her efforts contributed to the scientific and technological development of the country including the modernization of Taedonggang Foodstuff Factory and Pyongyang Hosiery Factory. Her feats were highly appreciated by Chairman Kim Jong Il and respected Comrade Kim Jong Un.
When respected Comrade Kim Jong Un visited Sokmak Atlantic Salmon Pedigree Farm, he was briefed on the good deeds of an ordinary woman scientist. For years, she dedicated everything to the scientific breeding of Atlantic salmon, living away from home, in order to implement without fail the teachings of Chairman Kim Jong Il who desired to provide delicious and nutritious salmon to our people. Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un was so pleased that he had a photo taken with her.
Respected Comrade Kim Jong Un highly treasures and gives prominence to the women scientists, valuing even the smallest of achievements. As we have held such a leader in high esteem, our women scientists will continue to make scientific contributions to the country’s development and keep the flowers of science and patriotism in full bloom, cherishing love for the country.