Kim Jong-un, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea, visited the Socialist Women's Union of Korea (Women's Union), a women's organization outside the Labor Party, and emphasized that "the Women's Union organization must focus on ideological education work."
According to the Korean Central News Agency on the 18th, the Chairperson met the newly elected chairperson and vice chairpersons at the 8th congress of the Women's Union the previous day and said, "Having a powerful patriotic group of women is our party's greatest pride and our state's great strength."
Along with the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea (GFTUK), the Union of Agricultural Workers of Korea (UAWK), and the Socialist Patriotic Youth League (Youth League), the Women's Union is one of North Korea's "four major mass organizations," serving to disseminate ideology and encourage implementation so that the party's policies and lines decided by the party can be carried out.
The Chairperson went on to emphasize, "The grand transformative struggle of the new era highlights the need to further strengthen the Women's Union, which shoulders a share of the revolution," adding, "You must become true patriots, communist mothers who raise children well, and communist educators."
Analysts say the Chairperson is seeking to induce loyalty and bolster cohesion of the system by successively meeting various sectors, including women's organizations and the military. In fact, the Chairperson visited a construction site that day and also met commanders and soldiers of an engineering unit who set an example.
The Korean Central News Agency reported that the Chairperson expressed "confidence that all the unit's commanders and soldiers will continue this year as well to achieve remarkable results awaited by the country and the people at the vanguard of the construction revolution, which is raising up assets for the century to come."