So… my focus is more on the implications of this.
A dictator tells his people the women in his country need to have more kids.
That could be really really really bad.
Like,… hundreds of thousands of women strapped to machines bad.
This is North Korea. Why would they turn women into cattle, the consequence of disobedience is death and/or labor camp for them and any family anyway. Also I’m sure a significant part of the population is indoctrinated enough to just comply.
The population is not dumb, people are just trying to make the best out of the situation. Like when they had some reporters go to a village, where women were sewing some clothes:
- Reporter: “Do you like the life in the country?”
- Woman (in subtitles): “We do what we can”
- Guide-translator: “We do the best for our nation!”
If they could, they might revolt, but NK is really well structured to prevent that… and even if they run away to the South, they find themselves in a modern country with no hireable skills.
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has said it is a duty of women to halt a fall in the country’s births in order to strengthen national power, state media said Monday, as his government steps up the call for the people to have more children.
“Stopping the decline in birthrates and providing good child care and education are all our family affairs that we should solve together with our mothers,” Kim said in his opening speech.
South Korea’s fertility rate, the lowest in the developed world, is believed to be due to a potent cocktail of reasons discouraging people from having babies, including a decaying job market, a brutally competitive school environment for children, traditionally weak child care assistance and a male-centered corporate culture where many women find it impossible to combine careers and family.
The country’s fertility rate recorded a major decline following a famine in the mid-1990s that was estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands of people, the Seoul-based Hyundai Research Institute said in a report in August.
“Given North Korea lacks resources and technological advancements, it could face difficulties to revive and develop its manufacturing industry if sufficient labor forces are not provided,” the institute report said.
Ahn, the website head, said that Kim Jong Un’s repeated public appearances with his young daughter, Ju Ae, are also likely be efforts to encourage families.
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