As North Korea is known to be providing various policy benefits to the ‘triplet generation and the generation that raises many children’ as a measure to address the low birth rate problem, sources have reported that parents of twins are expressing their dissatisfaction, raising issues of fairness.
A source in Yanggang Province told Daily NK on the 20th, “Parents of twins say that raising two or three children is the same, and they are displeased that the state only favors triplets.”
North Korea is widely reporting on the birth of triplets through the media, saying that it is a sign of prosperity for the country. On the 1st, the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the Workers’ Party of Korea, published an article saying that the 547th triplets born at Pyongyang Maternity Hospital were discharged.
North Korea provides benefits to women who are pregnant with triplets by allowing them to be admitted to Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, which is considered the best obstetrics and gynecology hospital in North Korea, to give birth and receive intensive care afterwards. In addition, triplets are cared for at local orphanages until they reach school age, which reduces the burden on parents.
In addition, the North Korean authorities provide various special benefits, such as priority housing allocation for triplets, and support this with laws. However, in this era of low birth rates, such measures are causing relative deprivation and dissatisfaction, especially in single-child families and especially in twin families.
According to sources, the triplets’ family in Samjiyeon City, Yanggang Province occasionally receives free food distribution as a national measure. Provincial and city party committee officials also pay constant attention to their living conditions and actively help solve their living difficulties.
A source said, “Whenever rumors spread that rations were given to triplets, the parents of twins who are raising the children on their own express great discontent, saying, ‘This really pisses me off,’” and “They say, ‘We’ve long since forgotten that we were getting rations,’ and do not spare criticism of the unfair measure, saying, ‘What’s the difference between having two (children) and three?’”
In addition, a source in North Hwanghae Province reported, “Earlier this month, the provincial party secretary spoke at a gathering of factory and enterprise managers about the superiority of the socialist health system and emphasized the need to support parents of triplets by reducing their working hours so they can balance work and childcare.” He added, “This left parents of twins with a great sense of alienation.”
Furthermore, when the North Hwanghae Province Party Members’ Association was organized to restore the damage in the northern border region at the end of July, it is said that the father of triplets from a certain machinery factory was given the special privilege of being excluded from the selection. It is said that this caused an outcry among parents of twins, saying, “Are triplets the only ones considered to have many children? Twins are also considered to have many children.”
The source said, “Since the twin generation doesn’t receive any special benefits, if the head of the household has no social status or is not economically capable of supporting the household, the wife has no choice but to shoulder the burden of childcare, meals, and social tasks, suffering double and triple the hardships.” “That’s why there are cases where they secretly abandon one of their children in front of an orphanage in the pitch-black night.”
He added, “The Marshal (Chairman Kim Jong Un) says that the country’s future is bright only when women have many children, but these days, women think having many children is as foolish as going into a pigsty wearing a pumpkin.” He added, “That’s why young people these days are getting married late and trying not to have children.”
Chairman Kim attended the 5th National Mothers’ Conference held in December last year for two consecutive days and made a speech for the first time as a top leader since 1961, mentioning the issue of the declining birth rate.
At the time, he said, “Having and raising many children is none other than patriotism,” and “We must ensure that national benefits, including giving priority in housing allocation, food and product supply, and medical services to families with many children, and we must also apply special subsidies so that they can actually help with their livelihood, and increase preferential measures in various ways.”
Source: www.dailynk.com
