Happy Elderly

If you receive an old-age pension in such a time of chronic economic recession, a pension that is not influenced by inflation at that, you must be a happy man who can enjoy the rest of his life. However, there are happier people in the DPRK.

In the country the government shoulders all the cost of living for the elderly.

Several years ago, the country newly built modern homes for old people with no one to rely on. These homes are provided with all living conditions plus medical workers and a small greenhouse in which the residents can do light work to keep healthy. The state covers all expenses for supplying grains, meat, vegetables and daily necessities to them. There is even a dedicated fishery station that supplies fish to the old people’s homes.

War veterans, persons of wartime merits and old disabled soldiers enjoy specially preferential treatment from the state and community. In July this year war veterans and persons of wartime merits were invited to the grand celebrations held in the capital city of Pyongyang to mark the 73rd anniversary of the victory of the Korean war and had a good time at recreational centres in the capital and the iconic Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area. It is a social climate that many people including youth often visit the families of war veterans and disabled soldiers, especially on national holidays, to help them live on in comfort. Many people take home war veterans, disabled soldiers and other old people with no one to depend on to take good care of them.

A national tournament is organized on a regular basis to help promote the health of the elderly.

Wide publicity is given to those elderly who work hard with patriotism to contribute to national prosperity. According to local media, a woman war veteran in a district of the capital city has collected and sent as many as 60 tons of scrap iron to a steel plant for over 60 years since she became a social pensioner for sickness in her early thirties. She, 92, was awarded the title of DPRK Hero. There are many other old-age pensioners who have done good jobs for the community, planting trees and cultivating flower beds in their neighbourhoods, collecting idle materials and receiving invention certificates. They all deem it as their greatest happiness to devote themselves even a little to the benevolent state which does everything it can do for the elderly care.