Children Are “Kings” of the Country

It is said that children of a country reflect its future.

In the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea children are called “kings” of the country.

Found in this country are palaces for children: the Pyongyang Students and Children’s Palace on Jangdae Hill in downtown Pyongyang and Mangyongdae Schoolchildren’s Palace in Kwangbok Street, and Kaesong Schoolchildren’s Palace in the area near the Military Demarcation Line that bisects Korea from the north to south.

The Pyongyang Students and Children’s Palace occupies a floor space of 50 000 square metres and a building area of 110 000 square metres and is 48 metres high. It has over 500 rooms for various activities in the fields of social and natural sciences, art and literature, sports, national defence, industry, agriculture and others. There are also a 1 100-seat theatre, an indoor stadium which accommodates 500 people, an outdoor practice ground, and a library with a capacity of housing hundreds of thousands of volumes. On the tenth floor are an astronomical observatory and a sightseeing platform. More than 10 000 schoolchildren engage in activities to realize their hopes and talents in the rooms for such sectors as political and ideological education, science and technology, art and sports. There are more than a hundred establishments for similar purposes in good locations all across the country, named as students’ halls of culture.

In the scenic spots of the DPRK are built children’s camps: Samjiyon at the foot of Mt. Paektu in the northern tip of the country, magnificent Mt. Myohyang, Songdowon in the east coast, Mt. Ryongak in the suburbs of Pyongyang and many other famous places house splendidly-built children’s camps.

In recent days they are undergoing reconstruction in conformity with the modern aesthetic sense and developing trend of architectural art. Typical example is Songdowon International Children’s Camp. International Friendship Children’s House, camp buildings, gym and wading pool, outdoor playground and open-air pool, archery field and other latest facilities furnished in the magnificent architectural buildings and establishments—they all elucidate how dearly children are loved in this country.

Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, a palace for babies, is another indication of affections shown by the country. It is regarded in the country that birth of triplets is a good sign of country’s prosperity. It sends helicopters or planes to the remote and secluded areas for women pregnant with triplets. When triplets are born, it even gives ornamental silver daggers for boys and gold rings for girls.

In this country orphaned children are in good care and enjoy ecstasy of happiness.

The newly built Pyongyang Baby Home and Orphanage illustrate this. They are well furnished with over 250 rooms including those for nursing and educating children, play rooms and intelligence game rooms, medical treatment ward, and indoor and outdoor wading pools, playgrounds with a fine assortment of amusement facilities and playthings. It is noteworthy that all the furniture and fixtures, amusement facilities and even interior decorations are all designed to satisfy the children different in age and psychological nature as well as improve their intelligence and morality. Such a palace for orphaned children is unprecedented in history of any other country and nation. It is the realities of socialist Korea that children bereaved of their parents enjoy happiness the same as those with parents.

The state sets it as its principle of giving the best things to the children, and, based on it, provides the children with necessary things in a responsible manner. Hence such legend-like anecdotes as the operation of school trains and buses for a few children and the establishment of branch schools for one or two pupils in desolate islands.

In the streets of Pyongyang many often witness the vans bearing the letters of “soya milk” on their sides. They carry soya milk to the children at nurseries, kindergartens and schools every day, thus earning the name of “king’s van.” It is a praise for the genuine image of socialist Korea in which rising generations are treasured as “kings” of the country.

Another example is the Okryu Children’s Hospital that was built a few years ago. Furnished with up-to-date facilities, operation rooms, sick wards and other treatment rooms, playgrounds and a heliport, the hospital also has classrooms for inpatient children to continue with their school courses. More conspicuous is a fine display of paintings on the walls which grip the children with such a juvenile delight as to forget their pains. For this, it is called an art gallery in hospital.   

Schoolchildren’s palaces, children’s camps and all other establishments for the sake of the children in the DPRK attract special attention of the international community not only for their magnificence in architecture and modern facilities. The huge sum of fund invested in constructing modern buildings and purchasing high-end machines and facilities go beyond imagination, and, more than that, they are enjoyed free of charge by children of ordinary working people whereas they are in the possession of those of a few millionaires and the privileged in other countries.

Bright is the future of the DPRK that treasures the children as “kings” of the country.