On International Women's Day and People's Korea -special article by Dr Dermot Hudson

                                                           

             " At present the Party and people put great trust in and have high expectations of the women's union. When the women's union grows in strength and when its members and other women turn out vigorously, our revolutionary cause will advance with greater vitality."
                                              KIM JONG UN

 March the 8th is celebrated throughout the world as International Women's Day . More correctly it is International Working Women's Day  and it was proposed by the German socialist Clara Zetkin (who was later a leader of the Comintern and Communist Party of Germany ) in 1910 . In the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , March the 8th is a public holiday . It is celebrated by meetings , concerts and other events . In the DPRK there are buildings that bear the name 'March 8th ' such as the March 8th Hotel in Sariwon .
    Women in the DPRK , unlike in capitalist countries , have their own mass organisation , the Socialist Women's Union of Korea which was originally founded on the 18th of November 1945 ( only 3 months after Korea' liberation  as the Korean Democratic Women's Union.
     The founder and eternal leader of People's Korea, President KIM IL SUNG always paid deep attention to the women's question and the liberation of women  pointing out in 1971 that "If a society is to run normally women who account one half of the population must play their role satisfactorily if we are to revolutionize and working classize the whole of society we must also revolutionize and working classize women . Just as a wagon cannot run smoothly if only one of its wheels functions, so a society cannot develop on a sound basis when only men fulfill their duties .Only when women are revolutionized and actively participate in the revolution and construction can the whole of society be revolutionised and working classized"
 In People's Korea women had been liberated from the terrible double and triple oppression under feudalism and imperialism . Under both feudalism and the colonial rule of Japan Korean women suffered extreme oppression including the sexual slavery imposed by the Japanese imperialists .
   The liberation of Korea from Japanese rule and the building of people's democracy , then socialism gave Korean women a new life as equals. Legalisation guaranteeing the rights of women had been enacted in the DPRK starting with the Law on Sexual Equality passed on the 30th of July 1946, Article 77 of the Socialist Constitution of the the DPRK (first enacted in 1972 and amended and supplemented several times since ) and the  Law of the DPRK on Protection of Women’s Rights  adopted in December 2010.
                       

   Women's rights are guaranteed in practice by measures such as free socialised childcare including 24 hour and 7 day nurseries . Also women with 3 children under the age of 13 may work 6 hours but be paid for 8 hours . No one ever asks how much this costs .It is a benefit given by People's Korea to women .
                                

  Women are highly respected in People's Korea , they are regarded as , in the words of respected Marshal KIM JONG UN " beautiful flowers of the country" .Nowadays women hold important positions in society such as managers of factories , heads of co-operative farms , directors of hospitals and other positions . In recent years women such as Kim Yo Jong , Choe Son Hui , Hyon Song Wol and Ri Chun Hee have become very prominent in the public life of the DPRK. The DPRK does not have the 'sex ' industry ( prostitution was abolished in People's Korea in 1946 and pornography which are prevalent in Western capitalist countries . In  capitalist countries women are treated as objects or commodities but in People's Korea women are free from this.
                 
 Thus in People' Korea International Women's Day is celebrated not as a formality but with real meaning and is celebrated with pride by Korean women . This is thanks to the Juche Idea and the people-centred socialist system of the DPRK as well as the guidance of President KIM IL SUNG ,
Chairman KIM JONG IL and Marshal KIM JONG UN.
Dr Dermot Hudson
Chairman British Group for the Study of the Juche Idea
President Association for the Study of Songun Politics
Official Delegate Korean Friendship Association/ Chairman UK KFA
Chairman British Solidarity Committee for Peace and Reunification in Korea
hon secretary general International Central Committee for the Study of Songun Politics