The Life of a child in North Korea

What is it like for a child to live in North Korea?

Ahn Myong-Chol saw many nightmarish atrocities during his years as a prison guard – including one horrific incident in which ferocious dogs attacked and killed innocent school kids, according to a shocking news report.

“There were three dogs and they killed five children,” the 45-year-old Ahn told the French news agency AFP.

“They killed three of the children right away. The two other children were barely breathing and the guards buried them alive,” said Ahn, who worked in one of the communist country’s brutal prison camps for eight years before fleeing in 1994.

A day later, guards rewarded the murderous mutts with a special meal, “as some kind of award,” Ahn said. 

Health Care

Millions of North Korean children are not getting the food, medicine or healthcare they need to develop physically or mentally, leaving many stunted and malnourished.Nearly a third of children under the age of five show signs of stunting where food is scarce, and chronic diarrhea due to a lack of clean water, sanitation and electricity has become the leading cause of death among children, the agency said.Hospitals are spotless but bare, few have running water or power, and drugs and medicine are in short supply, the agency said in a detailed update on the humanitarian situation in North Korea.

Child Care

Every Day  about 65% of the kids ages 2-10 die of diseases. These diseases can be as small as a simple ear infection, but because they do not treat them they end up going deaf. These kids are starved and treated worse than what we can imagine. The Leader Kim Jong-Un insists on not paying or even trying to get supplies. He rather these kids to die than to help them get the treatment they need. 

                         

                

                             

                              Foods

 North Korean officials have made quiet pleases for help, rising global food prices, shortfalls in fertilizer and the winter freeze that killed their wheat harvest. Donations, however, have not been flooding the nation considered a political pariah for its nuclear defiance and alleged human rights abuses.

•  "It's now very common to see people with little wicker baskets or plastic bags collecting whatever is edible".
•  "In the residential childcare centers, I did see more severely malnourished children than I've seen in a long time," 
• With fuel scarce, most farmers rely on oxen. But foot-and-mouth disease has decimated cattle stocks over the past year, according to the WFP.

Rugged mountains blanket much of North Korea, leaving less than a fifth of the land suitable for farming. Winters are long and harsh, weather conditions volatile.

Even as the hunger worsens, the state appears determined to rally national pride at home. Children are dying everyday, because of the lack of food and water. The leader rather see the children starve and die than to pay for money.  

                                                     Home

An Average North Korean home is nothing like the houses from the U.S . They have electricity and sometimes running water, but the Leader controls when they have access to any of this stuff. Every night the lights,TV, Etc. have to be off by a certain time or you will be punished. 

TV is allowed in North Korea, but only about 2 channels show. One about the Leader, and the other about how Americans horrible people. In North Korea they teach the children that all Americans should be killed, because the U.S helped the South during the War. 

                         
                     Families

 A typical North Korean Family only has about 1 or 2 kids, due to the harsh environment. Sometimes the Leader doesn't allow these Woman to give birth so he makes them get a abortion, even if its a month before birth.

These children are raised to believe that they have one leader and they must obey everything & anything he has to say. About 97% of these children grow up to be Soldiers for the Korean Army 

The parents of these children want them to grow up and be apart of the Army, because they want their children to protect their "Great Leader". For a daughter/son to be in the Army is very special to the parents, because they feel as though they did right. 

                                  Schools

• Children go through one year of kindergarten, four years of primary education, six years of secondary education. 

•  Schoolchildren provide their own desks and chairs, and money to pay for heat. Some students are forced to produce goods for the government. Some parents keep their children home by bribing teachers to keep quiet.

The sentiment of the U.S. - known as Americans - is reflected in a framed wall poster inside a North Korean kindergarten classroom where children brandish rifles and bayonets as they attack a hopeless U.S. soldier, his face bandaged and blood spurting from his mouth.

North Korean students learn that their country has had two main enemies: the Japanese, who colonized Korea from 1910 to 1945, and the U.S., which fought against North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War.

Class: History lessons include tales about the childhood of Kim Jong Il (pictured on wall), life under Japanese occupation and the Korean War, which children are told was started by the U.S.

 'Hate will last': This poster at a North Korean kindergarten reads 'Drive out the American imperialists. Let's reunify our fatherland' as students there learn that one of their country's main enemies is the U.S.

 

                             

                        Games

   North Korea as students beat a toy U.S. soldier with batons or pelt him with stones, a favorite schoolyard game

Learning: During playtime, children run around beating up mock American soldiers and planes with the worst schoolyard taunt is to call someone 'miguk nom,' or 'American b*******'

Art time: Much of the drawings by students depict U.S. soldiers getting brutally attacked and the best of the children's work is pinned up on a board inside the classroom

                                 Religions

                 

Traditionally religion in North Korea primarily consisted of Buddhism and Confucianism and Korean shamanism. Since the arrival of Europeans in the 18th century, there is a Christian minority. New religions have arisen during the last century, the most prominent one being Cheondoism, based on traditional shamanism . In North Korea they've had three leaders 

The current leader is Kim Jong-Un.  North Koreans hold every leader as a God, they believe that because of what all they have is because of Kim Jong-Un . Even though they starve they say it is for the greater good for the ruler.

                            Language

 All Koreans speak the Korean language, whose relationship to other languages is disputed; it may be related to Japanese or languages of the Altaic group, and it contains many Chinese loanwords.

                                    Culture/Holidays/Celebrations

1. North Korea remains remarkably shut off from the rest of the world. Read on for what's known about the hermit country.
2. North Korea's ruling dynasty has always cast itself as somewhat supernatural. Founder Kim Il Sung was known as Korea's "sun," and claimed control of the weather. Along with his son Kim Jong Il's birthday, Kim Il Sung's birthday is a national holiday. 
3. kim Jong Il's mythology is no less extensive. His birth was hailed as "heaven sent" 

                                              May Day in North Korea

                   

                  Army Parade to show citizen how strong the Army really is  

                                         

                            
                               Clothing

North Koreans are initiated into the wearing of badges and insignia at a young age. In the Rason SEZ I found kindergarten children wearing red star badges as a reward for exemplary performance.  Throughout the country regimented middle school children compete for rank; those who win responsibilities, receive and wear arm badges.

 

           A picture of two kids carrying hay 

               

       As you can see it must be very cold in North Korea due to the fact of their clothing.

                Interesting Facts

• Between 150,000 and 200,000 North Koreans live in prison camps surrounded by electrified fencing
• The worst camps are for those who commit political crimes, and offenders can have their entire extended family imprisoned with them.
• Only military and government officials can own motor vehicles.

The border between North Korea and South Korea is one of the most militarized in the world, according to the State Department. Pyongyang has about 1.2 million military personnel compared with 680,000 troops in South Korea

                  

• The World Food Programme estimates that 6 million of North Korea's 25 million people are in need of food aid and one-third of children are chronically malnourished or stunted.
• In 1978, North Korean agents kidnapped South Korean film director Shin Sang Ok and his wife, actress Choe Eun Hui, to create a film industry in North Korea. 
• North Korea has a network of informants who monitor and report to the authorities fellow citizens they suspect of criminal or subversive behavior. Unauthorized access to non-state radio or TV broadcasts is severely punished.
• North Korea has been issuing near-daily threats against the United States and South Korea, and sometimes at United States forces in the Pacific. In one of the boldest warnings, the North said it could carry out pre-emptive nuclear strikes against the United States.