North Korea is calling on the five million members of the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League to become “nuclear bombs” for the protection of Kim Jong Un’s oppressive dictatorship, reports NK News.
The ninth Youth Congress was held Sunday for the first time in 23 years. During the meeting, the Korean Children’s Union said to the nation’s youth, “Please be ‘five million nuclear bombs’ to protect our dear respected leader.” The Children’s Union encouraged kids to give their lives for the regime.
During the event, Kim Jong Un said, “All youth should prevent any exotic culture of ideology and abnormal lifestyle from infiltrating our internal society … Members of the youth league must uproot any sprout of anti-socialist, exotic poisonous weeds, which have grown up in our socialist-style garden.”
“Let us fully display wisdom and courage of heroic youth in general charge for building socialist power,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Kim Jong Un as saying during this latest session of the youth congress.
While the Youth Congress appeared to be focused on promoting socialism, the gathering was actually about strengthening the “cult of personality” which surrounds the Kim family. During the recent meeting, Kim Jong Un officially removed the word “socialist” from the youth league’s name to put greater emphasis on the Kim family and its value as a symbol of the state.
In a recent South Korean National Security Council meeting following the defection of senior North Korean official Thae Yong Ho, South Korean President Park Geun-hye said that “serious cracks” were visible in Kim Jong Un’s authoritarian regime. Internal instability is likely the reason Kim Jong Un not only chose to gather the youth league after years of dormancy but also change its name.
John Lee, writer for Seoul-based think tank Freedom Factory, argues, “Considering the latest rounds of defections, it is clear that North Korea is just a spark away from an uncontrollable conflagration.”
“Youth have been considered a so-called supporting pillar of the Kim Jong Un era, and they are future supporters,” South Korean professor of North Korean Studies Yang Moo-jin told NK News. “Kim Jong Un is putting more emphasis on younger generations in line with the image of a young leader and youthful North, and holding the congress is an extension of this,” Yang explained.
“The leadership forced the league to yield their allegiance to Kim Jong Un…and not to be shaken by the external penetration of capitalism, by imparting a sacred meaning to the organization,” Lim Jae-cheon, another North Korean Studies professor in South Korea explained to NK News.
Kim Jong Un promotes a “youth-first” approach, but young defectors assert that North Korea’s youth policies are not about creating a better society for the younger generation; rather, they are about exploiting children to ensure that the present system is maintained indefinitely.
Send tips to ryan@
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.