N. Korean leader calls for mothers' role in propping up regime

▲ This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Dec. 5, 2023, shows the North's leader Kim Jong-un delivering a closing speech at the Fifth National Congress of Mothers in Pyongyang the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

▲ This photo, carried by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency on Dec. 5, 2023, shows participants at the Fifth National Congress of Mothers, which closed its two-day session the previous day. (For Use Only in the Republic of Korea. No Redistribution) (Yonhap)

NK leader-mothers

N. Korean leader calls for mothers' role in propping up regime

SEOUL, Dec. 5 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has stressed the role of mothers in strengthening the internal solidarity of the regime at the first national meeting of mothers in 11 years, state media reported Tuesday.

Kim made the remark during his closing speech Monday at the Fifth National Congress of Mothers, which opened its two-day session Sunday in Pyongyang, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

The North's leader said it would be the "primary revolutionary task" for mothers to prepare the younger generation well to help them become the main force of society.

"Unless a mother becomes a communist, it is impossible for her to bring up her sons and daughters as communists and transform the members of her family into revolutionaries," he was quoted as saying by the KCNA.

Experts said North Korea appears to have held the meeting in a bid to tighten social disciplines and help address the country's low birth rate.

On Sunday, Kim stressed the role of mothers in resolving "non-social" problems and preventing a fall in the country's birth rate.

North Korea's total fertility rate -- the number of children that are expected to be born to a women over her lifetime -- came to 1.8 in 2023, according to data posted on the website of the U.N. Population Fund.

North Korea last held a national congress of mothers in 2012. The inaugural gathering took place in November 1961.

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