North Korea's population policy calls for bearing many young. At the second mothers rally held in September 1998, the authorities called on the mothers to give birth to as many children as possible. A female with three children or more will be given a daily food ration of 600g and a monthly allowance of NKW60 - Workers' monthly wages average at NKW100, it was announced. A household raising four children or more will be granted the additional privileges of a special living allowance and priority in the allocation of bigger houses, the authorities proclaimed. In February this year a female worker in Jagang Province, who is said to have born many children, was given the title of "labor heroine." Such a title is granted to housewives who have given birth to eight children or more, according to North Korean escapees in the South.

Pyongyang shifted to the encouragement of childbirth in 1996, away from its birth control policy launched in the mid-1970s, faced with the emerging shortage in military recruitment and labor force, a fallout from birth control. It was against such a background that the North in October 1996 extended servicemen's retirement age from 27 to 30. Also contributing to the trend was the practice of getting married later, a new social phenomenon brought about by worsening economic woes in the wake of the death of the North Korean founder and president Kim Il Sung in 1994. Females' marrying age was extended from 23-24 to 27-28 in 1994. A wide-circulated saying goes, "One who lends money to another person is the worst fool, one who pays back his debt is the second worst fool, and those who get married follow next," has something to do with such a social atmosphere.

Despite authorities' appeal to the contrary, young couples tend to put off having kids until they have established themselves financially, and have only one or two children at that. To do so, they have to practice contraception, but it's hard to find the means of contraception in North Korea. Only a privileged few have access to condoms and rich citizens; most ordinary people have never even heard of a condom.

If women becomes pregnant against her wishes, she tends to undergo a surgical abortion. Surgical abortions were permitted in the North in or around 1983 when the birth control policy peaked. But they are confined to mothers with five children or more or those afflicted by serious diseases, like hepatitis and tuberculosis. But a large number of pregnant women get surgical abortions illicitly by bribing surgeons. The price of a surgical abortion differs from regions to individuals, but are usually about 9 liters of polished rice.

Pregnant housewives take medical checkups at their neighborhood clinics or hospitals. If a women conceived a triplet or more, she is immediately transferred to Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, the best-equipped hospital of obstetrics and gynecology in the North, where she is accorded special treatment.

Expectant mothers in general deliver their babies at their homes. They avoid hospitals because medical institutions, due to economic difficulties, require admitted pregnant women to supply firewood for heating the ward, foods and drinks, injections and every other necessary type of equipment is needed. Upon baby deliveries, they eat seaweed soup, which follows the traditional practice prevailing across the Korean peninsula. As seaweed is hard to obtain, many of them are served with less salty soup of dried outer leaves of cabbage.

(Kim Kwang-in, kki@chosun.com )