Recently, NK Times obtained the ‘Youth Education Guarantee Act’ created by North Korea to control the thoughts of young people. This law was adopted as Decree No. 11 of the Supreme People’s Assembly held on September 29, 2021, and consists of a total of 5 chapters and 45 articles.
Through this law, will North Korea impose strict legal liability for things that young people should not do in projects to establish a socialist lifestyle, things that institutions, enterprises, and citizens should not do, and actions that violate the requirements of the ‘Youth Education Guarantee Act’? was specifically stipulated.
In fact, in Chapter 1 (Articles 1 to 4), North Korea dealt with the mission of the ‘Youth Education Guarantee Act’, the principle of valuing youth, the principle of guaranteeing youth business conditions, and the principle of establishing a socialist lifestyle, and Chapter 2 (Articles 5 to 18) Article) describes the mission and tasks of young people, including their status and role, loyalty and dedication, in the struggle to build socialism.
Subsequently, Chapter 3 (Articles 19 to 26) stipulates the basic requirements for guaranteeing conditions in the youth business sector and the procedures for employment, admission, residence, and departure of Youth Alliance members in institutions, enterprises, and organizations for youth issued by the Youth Alliance organization. It was specified that this must be done under the condition of having an alliance member transfer certificate.
Also, in Chapter 4 (Articles 27-36), North Korea differs in terms of school culture, family culture, and social culture for young people, and that institutions, enterprises, organizations, and citizens are responsible for young people’s immoral and uncultural behavior and phenomena on the streets and in public places. Instead of ignoring or ignoring them, we must immediately fight against them and prevent them from being ignored by social criticism and pressure, and we have described the method and direction in detail.
North Korea has long considered ideological education for its youth to be important, and it is showing signs of strengthening it further in the Kim Jong-un era. Moreover, as the structural factors of regime change, such as continuous economic difficulties, residents’ dissatisfaction, and the influx of external information, are accumulating, North Korea is known to be using all means and methods to control the ideology of party members and workers, especially young people who are sensitive to new things.
North Korea’s intentions are described in more detail and detail in Chapter 5 (Articles 37 to 45) of the Youth Education Guarantee Act.
In particular, in Article 41 (paragraphs 1 to 14), North Korea prohibits violent crimes including murder, robbery, and rape, religious and superstitious activities, importing, storing, and using impure recordings, singing and dancing, unusual speech and writing, and divorce or divorce. It specifically stipulated the prohibition of acts that disturb social morals, such as child marriage.
In relation to this, some point out that there are differences between North Korea’s Constitution and the ‘Youth Education Guarantee Act’. In Article 41 of the Youth Education Guarantee Act, North Korea stipulates that “religious and superstitious activities must not be practiced,” but ironically, the socialist constitution clearly states that freedom of religion is guaranteed.
Additionally, in Article 42, North Korea states that institutions, enterprises, organizations, and citizens must not create or provide services to recorded, edited, or printed materials containing decadent or erotic content, provide unusual filming locations, or direct, film, or edit unusual scenes. Nine provisions were listed to prevent young people from reproducing external culture, and in addition, Articles 43 to 45 stipulate that serious consequences for violating this law, such as strengthening law compliance education and legal control by the relevant censorship supervision and control agencies, including the prosecution and safety agencies, etc. It threatened that responsible workers of institutions, enterprises, organizations, and individual citizens would be subject to administrative or criminal liability depending on the situation.
In this way, North Korea is making every effort to remove the external culture that has spread among the youth through the ‘Youth Education Guarantee Act’ and change North Korean youth into human beings suitable for the system. However, in North Korea, it is known that there is a response that it is already too late for the Youth Education Guarantee Act to have legal effect or to control the thoughts of young people.
In relation to this, a source from North Hamgyong Province said in a phone call with this newspaper on the 14th, “The ‘Youth Education Guarantee Act’ to control the thoughts of young people is like a premature prescription,” and “This is because many young people who have already watched Korean movies or dramas have become Koreanized.” “He said.
At the same time, he said, “There are many young people who now perceive our (North Korea) country not as a normal country but as a modern feudal dynasty.” “It’s just that,” he added.
***This article is a translation based on ChatGPT, so it may not match our NK Times Korean content.
