North Korean children from two state-run orphanages have “volunteered” to work in coal mines and farms in a show of fealty to the ruling party, state media claimed on Thursday.

“Dozens of orphan children rushed out to the Chonnae Area Coal-mining Complex to fulfill their oath to repay even just a millionth of the love the party showed” in offering them school supplies over the years, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Ceremonies to “congratulate the orphan children for volunteering to work in difficult and labor-consuming fields” and glorify DPRK leader Kim Jong Un’s directives to last month’s