North Korea's major women's union calls for eradication of anti

In this video footage released by North Korea's official Korean Central Television, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un touches face of a female soldier at meeting with participants in a military parade in Pyongyang, Sept. 9. Yonhap

A major North Korean women's union called on its members to wage a battle against anti-socialist practices as it convened a workshop for local leaders, state media reported Friday.

The Socialist Women's Union of Korea (SWUK) held a workshop for its local committee heads from Tuesday to Thursday and discussed the issue of "wiping out anti-socialist and non-socialistic practices," the Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the North's ruling party, said.

Kim Jong-sun, the new chairwoman of the Central Committee of the union, and other officials "critically analyzed anti-socialist and non-socialist practices in the past," the paper said.

The committee leaders also called on union members to wage an "uncompromising struggle for socialism, putting the fate of socialism, as well as their lives and their children at stake."

The North's largest youth organization, the Socialist Patriotic Youth League (SPYL), also held an enlarged meeting Thursday and urged members to devote themselves to socialism.

The North has recently stressed socialism and ideological education for women and the youth. In December, the North reenacted a law that toughens the punishment for the possession of videos made in South Korea as part of efforts to prevent the inflow of outside culture that could influence its people's ideology. (Yonhap)