북한의 유아보육법제에 대한 고찰

Abstract

A research on North Korea’s Nursing and Upbringing Children Act, which has not been conducted so far, does have great importance, given that it is apolitical as well as that it is a field in which North Korea positively has get involved in response to International community’s request for improvement. Especially, considering that North Korea is supposed to submit the sixth periodic report, according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, in October 2022, exploring the North Korea’s Nursing and Upbringing Children Act, as of now, seems to be a timely work as a preparation of inter-Korean exchange and cooperation in that regard. As regards the Nursing and Upbringing Children Act of South and North Korea, despite ideological differences between the two Koreas, there appears several common points :　①　underscoring national responsibility, ② establishment of free child-care system, ③ dualistic administrative system. On the other hand, there are differences found as well: ① North Korea puts an emphasis on ideology of its system compared to South Korea; ② South Korea actually ensures rights of a guardian to decide whether to use nursery facilities, but North Korea doesn’t;③ South Korea entails a caregiver to an extent of a guardian, while North Korea regulates it by presupposing kinship and role of the female; ④ South Korea underlines a right to participate by a guardian, while North Korea doesn’t have any. Although there appear such differences, the two Korea, can be seen as relatively having a greater similarity compared to that between West and East Germany, which emphasized the role of families under the principle of subsidiarity by the state during that nation’s process of unification. Given that the infant care sector is an area where the two Koreas, and the international community can cooperate together, it is necessary to pay attention to changes in the North Korea’s Nursing and Upbringing Children Act, including the content of the sixth national report to be submitted by the North.