Drills with mock AK47s for children’s day
TO celebrate Korean Children’s Union Day yesterday, the pupils of Number Four Primary School threw mock hand grenades at targets, crawled under a frame and threw themselves over a fence – all with imitation AK47 assault rifles over their shoulders.
After completing the obstacle course, Myong Hyon-jong said she wanted to join the army when she grows up, to “safeguard the respected supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, with military power”.
“We have to prepare ourselves to defend our country, North Korea” she said. Hyon-jong is only 10 years old. Her teacher, Ri Su-ryon, said the race was intended to give the children the spirit to defend their country when they were grown up, and to prepare them physically and mentally to beat down any enemies.
Nuclear-armed North Korea is technically still in a state of conflict after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea considers itself at risk of invasion by the US – its justification for the atomic and missile programmes that have seen it subjected to multiple rounds of UN Security Council sanctions. The latest expansion came last week. Kim has overseen two nuclear tests and scores of missile launches, as Pyongyang seeks to develop a missile that can deliver a nuclear warhead to the US – something which President Donald Trump has vowed won’t happen.
Tensions soared earlier this year when the US administration said military options were being considered.
Teacher Ri, 24, took part in the obstacle race, said: “I threw the grenade with the mind that I would beat down all the enemies who even try to infiltrate our country.”
North Koreans normally only express officially-approved views to the media.
All North Korean kids are members of the Children’s Union, one of the mechanisms through which loyalty to the authorities is inculcated from an early age.
The anniversary of North Korea’s foundation, in 1946, is a public holiday, marked by sports days at schools. – AFP