‘Physically weak’ but vital: N. Korea’s Kim lauds women in Women’s Day speech
The Straits Times
He called women the 'solid buttress of the revolution'. Read more at straitstimes.com.
SEOUL – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un praised the “physically weak” but “strong-willed” women of his country, state media reported on March 9, calling them a “solid buttress of the revolution”.
In a speech in Pyongyang commemorating International Women’s Day, Mr Kim highlighted the hard work carried out by North Korean women.
“Our contemporary women... have become a solid buttress of the revolution,” Mr Kim said, according to an English dispatch from the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
“Though physically weak, they are obviously strong-willed, their plain faces assuming courage and the wrinkles on them denoting their strenuous exertion,” he added.
Mr Kim’s wife Ri Sol Ju and daughter Ju Ae attended the weekend event.
Photos released by KCNA showed Ju Ae – long viewed by analysts as a possible successor in the secretive, nuclear‑armed state – sitting next to her father and holding his hand.
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