Communist dictator Kim Jong-un cried while delivering remarks this week to North Korea’s “national conference of mothers,” urging women across the country to help with “stopping the declining birth rate” and reminding mothers of their government requirement to “become communist.”
“First of all, mothers themselves should become communist mothers who have noble and beautiful moral qualities,” Kim said in an address to the “conference of mothers” on Tuesday. “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.”
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the flagship propaganda outlet of the communist Kim regime, published two separate speeches by Kim at the conference, one on Sunday and one on Tuesday. Both emphasized that the impoverished, brutal authoritarian regime required mothers to indoctrinate their children into communism and women generally to have many children. Kim’s remarks acknowledging a decreasing birth rate made headlines in South Korea, as the secretive regime often ignores its many internal problems and instead focuses on demonizing South Korea and America.
Kim’s appearance at the conference was also notable as state media aired footage of Kim crying while addressing the mothers.
Kim is the leader of a third generation of Kim family tyrants, following father Kim Jong-il and grandfather Kim Il-sung, the founder of communist North Korea. The regime forces citizens to abide by a cult that worships the Kim family, and Kim Il-sung above all, as well as hates America and the free world generally. Even suspicions of insufficiently worshipping the Kims — and, especially, suspicions of Christianity — can land a North Korean and multiple generations of their family in a labor camp or result in execution.
Kim Jong-un has distinguished himself from his father and grandfather with displays such as his crying at the mother’s summit this week. He has notably issued public remarks apologizing in the past, most prominently during the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, while Pyongyang still insisted it had not documented a single case of coronavirus infection within its borders.
“Our people have placed trust, as high as sky and as deep as sea, on me, but I have failed to always live up to it satisfactorily. I am really sorry for that,” Kim said through tears in a speech in October 2020.
Kim has also departed from the legacy of his forefathers by prominently featuring women in his regime. Kim Yo-jong, his sister, is a top communist official and is regularly dispatched to publish deranged threats of nuclear attacks on the United States and other foes. His daughter, Kim Ju-ae, began making public appearances in late 2022, accompanying her father to the test of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and appearing in state media as the likely heir to the communist tyranny.
The contents of this week’s remarks were not apologetic. Instead, Kim appeared emotional when describing the sacrifices of North Korean mothers and the duties that women in the country are forced to accept.
“These tasks include bringing up their children so that they will steadfastly carry forward our revolution, eliminating the recently-increasing non-socialist practices, promoting family harmony and social unity,” Kim listed, according to KCNA, “making the communist virtues … stopping the declining birth rate, and taking good care of children and educating them effectively.”
This photo provided on Nov. 19, 2022, by the North Korean government shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his daughter inspecting the site of a missile launch at Pyongyang International Airport in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
In his speech on Sunday, Kim asserted that “the position and role of women” in North Korea was increasingly important, and the “mothers’ share of contribution to strengthening the national power and propelling the revolution becomes greater.”
He expanded on that on Tuesday, insisting that women more assertively procreate and that “all mothers clearly understand that it is patriotism to give birth to many children and do so positively.”
North Korea is believed to have one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, hovering around 1.8 children per woman. The average believed to be necessary for “replacement fertility,” or the creation of enough babies to maintain a stable population, is 2.1 children per woman. The world’s lowest fertility rate, however, belongs to South Korea, where government statistics showed that the birth rate stood at around 0.70 in the past quarter, a record low.
South Korean government officials suggested in remarks to the news agency Yonhap that Kim held the conference of mothers in an attempt to prevent a similar catastrophic birth rate decline in North Korea.
“The congress appeared to be aimed at preventing an ideological deviation by the younger generation and propping up the regime by stressing the importance of family education,” an anonymous South Korean official told the outlet.
North Korea is experiencing dwindling numbers of births partially in response to the impoverished state of the country, where many families have no assurances that they can properly feed their children.
“Many families in North Korea also don’t intend to have more than one child these days as they know they need lots of money to raise their kids, send them to school and help them get jobs,” Ahn Kyung-su, head of DPRKHEALTH.ORG, a website focusing on health issues in North Korea, told Voice of America in response to Kim’s concerns.
