Daily NK has obtained a 2022 kindergarten textbook published by North Korea’s Education Newspaper that reveals how the regime shapes young minds through political indoctrination. The textbook, titled “Flower Petals,” is designed for 6- and 7-year-old children and focuses on glorifying the country’s leadership while criticizing capitalist societies.
A source inside North Korea provided the textbook, offering rare insight into the educational materials used to influence children from their earliest school years.
The lessons feature numerous stories about the childhoods of former leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. These narratives portray Kim Il Sung teaching neighborhood children about expelling Japanese forces and reclaiming Korea for its people, while Kim Jong Il is depicted as having cherished the “people’s army” from a young age—both stories crafted to emphasize the leaders’ supposed greatness.
Current leader Kim Jong Un appears in an anecdote describing how he personally arranged for educational toys to be sent to a children’s store. This story aims to demonstrate Kim’s purported love and concern for North Korean children.
The textbook also contains historical narratives about ordinary North Koreans being exploited by landlords, capitalists, and Japanese imperialists before liberation. “We mustn’t forget those times of bitter enmity,” the text emphasizes, clearly designed to instill class consciousness in young students.
Anti-capitalist messaging features prominently throughout the material. One particularly striking story appears under the title “Is it a joke, or is it murder?” It describes: “In one capitalist country, there was a terrible incident in which a five-year-old boy fatally shot his own brother with a handgun. The capitalist country in which that boy lives is a country where people only care about themselves, a country where people casually kill other people for their own benefit.”
This harsh portrayal of capitalist society attempts to shape negative views in kindergarteners who lack the context to understand complex economic systems. The underlying message positions North Korea’s socialist system as uniquely safe and beneficial by comparison.
Even within North Korea, some citizens appear troubled by this early indoctrination of children.
“Every day, children bow and sing to portraits and statues (of the Kim family) and talk about how the Marshal (Kim Jong Un) loves them. People can’t help but sigh when they see children naïvely believe they’re the happiest people on earth,” the source told Daily NK.
The source added, “Some people who come across these textbooks criticize the dishonesty of promoting children’s stores to kids who have likely never even visited one. It’s disturbing to watch these innocent children earnestly repeating messages about the Marshal’s love.”
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