Summary of domestic news in North Korea this week

NK weekly-domestic news

Summary of domestic news in North Korea this week

SEOUL, Dec. 8 (Yonhap) -- The following is a summary of domestic news in North Korea this week.

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N. Korea urges people to follow leader Kim in climbing Mount Paektu in winter

SEOUL -- North Korea on Friday called on its people to climb up Mount Paektu in winter to better learn about "revolutionary spirits."

The Rodong Sinmun, the main newspaper, reported that around 120,000 people at some 2,400 organizations have gone up Mount Paektu so far along the path on which North Korean leader Kim Jong-un rode his white horse in 2019.

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N. Korea doles out gifts to participants in mothers' conference

SEOUL -- North Korea has held a meeting to hand out gifts to participants in the latest national conference of mothers, state media reported Wednesday, in an apparent move to secure their loyalty amid a declining birth rate.

The central committee of the ruling Workers' Party provided the participants with significant gifts "associated with the meticulous paternal affection" of leader Kim Jong-un.

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N. Korea pulls out of Senegal, Guinea in series of embassy closures: official

SEOUL -- North Korea has shut down its missions in Senegal and Guinea in an apparent move to reduce spending amid economic difficulties, a South Korean foreign ministry official said Tuesday.

The latest shutdowns came after the sanctions-hit country closed its embassies in Angola, Nepal, Bangladesh, Spain and Uganda in recent months. The total number of North Korean diplomatic missions had dropped from 53 to 46 as of Tuesday, according to the official.

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(LEAD) N. Korean leader calls for mothers' role in propping up regime

SEOUL -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has stressed the role of mothers in strengthening the internal solidarity of the regime at the first national meeting of mothers in 11 years, state media reported Tuesday.

Kim made the remark during his closing speech Monday at the Fifth National Congress of Mothers, which opened its two-day session Sunday in Pyongyang, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

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N. Korea raps Washington's 'double standard' over S. Korea's spy satellite launch

SEOUL -- North Korea on Monday denounced the United States for having a "double standard" over space programs, saying Washington helped South Korea with launching a military spy satellite, while condemning Pyongyang's similar move.

South Korea successfully launched its first indigenous military spy satellite atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from a U.S. military base in California on Friday, after North Korea put its spy satellite Malligyong-1 into orbit on Nov. 21.

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N. Korea's Kim calls for measures to prevent fall in birth rate

SEOUL -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for measures to prevent a decrease in the country's birth rate in the first national meeting of mothers in 11 years, state media reported Monday.

Kim said he has thought about North Korean mothers whenever he faced difficulties in steering state and party affairs, and stressed the role of mothers in such various fields as helping resolve "non-social" problems and promoting the unity of society.

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