The idea of a happy childhood, and of children being “the only kings of the country,” is a core concept in North Korean propaganda.

Official media brags about free school education and afterschool activities, free medical service, school uniform and textbooks distributed by the state, well-organized orphanages, and the absence of corporal punishments in North Korean schools.

Almost none of these achievements, which indeed put North Korea in a good light in comparison to the developing world, are challenged by Western observers. Still, they criticize childhood in the DPRK from a different angle.

In the Western world, childhood in North