For 36 years the Korean women had been subject to incessant insult and cruel exploitation by Japanese imperialism. They had neither political nor economic right, and were denied to participate in cultural, social or political life. Medieval, feudalistic family relationship accentuated the political and economic oppression of women. Maltreatment, insult and illiteracy were the lot the masses of the Korean working women had to suffer. The Red Army emancipated north Korea from the Japanese colonial yoke, and this brought about a change in the social position of women. Various democratic reformations carried out in the country have provided conditions for freeing women from inequality of political, economic, cultural and family life, which they had suffered. With a view to liquidating the remnants of Japanese colonial rule, reforming the old feudalistic relationship between man and woman and enabling women to take part in all fields of cultural, social and political life, the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea decides:
Article 1. Women shall have equal rights with men in all realms of state, economic, cultural, social and political life.
Article 2. Women shall be on a par with men in the right to elect or to be elected in the local state organs or in the highest state organ.
Article 3. Women shall have equal right with men in work and the rights to equal pay, social insurance and education.
Article 4. Women shall have the right to free marriage like men. Unfree, forced marriage without consent of the contracting parties is prohibited.
Article 5. When conjugal relations get into trouble and cannot be continued any longer, women, too, are entitled to free divorce on an equal footing with men. A mother shall be allowed to sue her divorced husband for the cost of bringing up
children. The suits for divorce and children's nursing expenses shall be dealt with by the People's Court.
Article 6. The age of marriage shall be full 17 or above for woman and full 18 or above for man.
Article 7. Polygamy, a hereditary custom based on medieval, feudalistic relations, and the evil practices of infringing upon the rights of women, such as selling and buying girls as wives or concubines, shall be hereafter prohibited. Both licensed and unlicensed prostitution, and kisaeng-girl keeping system (kisaeng call-office and kisaeng school) shall be prohibited. Those who violate this shall be punished by law.
Article 8. Women shall have the right of succession to the property including land like men and, when divorced, the right to distribution of property including land.
Article 9. With the proclamation of this law, the laws and rules of Japanese imperialism with regard to the Korean women's right are annulled.
This iaw shall become effective as from the day of its promulgation.
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