North Korea on 'Cheongnyeonjeol': "Youth, Strive with Patriotic Passion... Fight Against Reactionary Ideology"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] North Korea's ruling party organ, Rodong Sinmun, on the occasion of Youth Day, urged that "youth must become a blazing flame and a shock troop," calling for "a hundredfold, a thousandfold struggle" to achieve the national economic development 5-year plan.

Rodong Sinmun stated in an article titled "Warmly Celebrating the Revolutionary Holiday of Korean Youth, Youth Day" on the 28th, "All youth must become labor innovators and youth heroes who dedicate their indomitable fighting spirit and patriotic enthusiasm to the rewarding struggle of socialist construction."

Rodong Sinmun urged, "In today's general advance to implement the decisions of the Party's 8th Congress, the wisdom and spirit of youth must be powerfully demonstrated," and "In carrying out the national economic development 5-year plan, the flames of creation and innovation must be fiercely ignited."

It also noted that the name of the existing ruling party's youth organization, 'Cheongnyeon Dongmaeng' (Youth League), was recently changed to 'Socialist Patriotic Youth League,' reflecting "the great expectations of the Party and the people that the Youth League will fully demonstrate the power of a shock troop in socialist construction," and called for struggle for the socialist revolution.

It also called on youth to be armed with socialist ideology. Rodong Sinmun emphasized, "They must be firmly prepared as patriotic youth who hold socialism as their belief," and "they must wage uncompromising struggle against all reactionary ideological elements that contradict socialism and collectivism."

Furthermore, it instructed, "Youth league organizations at all levels must regularize and standardize organizational ideological life, continuously explore and apply new ideological education methods suited to the youth's ideological feelings, emotions, and consciousness levels, and steadily deepen the five major educations."

This appears to be a warning against the recent 'Jangmadang generation,' North Korea's version of the MZ generation, being influenced by individualism and Western ideas. Rodong Sinmun also pointed out in the previous day's newspaper, "If youth become contaminated by capitalist morals based on individualism and Western culture, they will become moral degenerates who pursue only personal comfort and pleasure, mentally disabled, and ultimately fall into enemies of the revolution."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.