KCNA reported today that Kim Jong Eun has arranged the distribution of bags of candy, gum and cookies to elementary schools, kindergartens and nurseries nationwide. This is the first time such goodie bags have been distributed to commemorate Kim Jong Eun’s birthday, which falls on January 8th.
According to KCNA, “Students from elementary schools and children in kindergartens and nurseries nationwide received the bags full of gifts of love,” adding, “With the concerned affection of a true father, Kim Jong Eun gives the good things that come along to his children first, and this time gave children nationwide a candy bag in the expression of his love.”
Kim Jong Eun reportedly ordered helicopters to send the bags out to children living on distant islands in the West Sea, whereupon the children living there supposedly shouted, “Thank you so much Marshal Kim Jong Eun.”
Although this is the first time that gifts have been distributed to children in commemoration of Kim Jong Eun’s birthday, it has been a tradition to deliver similar bags to children under ten years old on both April 15th and February 16th, the birthdays of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, since the 80s.
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The gifts are designed to inspire loyalty in the people, and to confer the traditional image of the North Korean leader as a protector of the nation’s vulnerable children.
Following the release of the story, one senior defector told Daily NK, “North Korea has not propagated news of Kim Jong Eun’s birthday externally, but his idolization is still going on internally, and as such Kim Jong Eun’s birthday will be treated like a holiday, they will receive food distribution and the people will take a day off.”
