North Korea wants the world to believe that orphans are volunteering to work in state-owned mines and farms.
The Korean Central News Agency said hundreds of children “with wisdom and courage in the prime of their youth” have chosen to work for the state,” the BBC reported.
The state-run propaganda machine said “dozens of orphan children rushed out to the Chonnae Area Coal-mining Complex to fulfill their oath to repay even just a millionth of the love the party showed” on Thursday.
And on Saturday it said 700 orphans had volunteered to work at factories, farms and forests.
Photos released with the statements suggest the kids are teenagers but they may be even younger.
The dictatorship — often called the “Hermit Kingdom” because of its limited relationships with the rest of the world — has long been accused of using child slaves to work in state-owned industries. Human Rights Watch and other organizations have detailed long hours, little or no pay and inhumane conditions at North Korean work camps. Fatal accidents are common.
Last year, a State Department report on human rights there said the country practices “the worst forms of child labor.”
About 26 million people are thought to live in North Korea, which is seeing even worse conditions than usual after it sealed its borders to prevent the coronavirus from entering the country more than a year ago.
The situation in the country is desperate because of the lack of trade. Last month, leader Kim Jong Un told a gathering of the Workers’ Party that the country faced its “worst-ever situation.”
“Praising the ‘wisdom and courage’ of these young “volunteers” also turns them into communist party role models, wrote the BBC’s Laura Bicker. “They are being idolized for their self-sacrifice.”
Bicker added that this move is taking place at a time when leader Kim Jong Un is trying to “crack down on any dissent from the country’s youth.”
Leave a Reply