ABSTRACT
North Korea's official discourses regarding reproduction is a significant topic for understanding the socialist patriarchal state's gendered mobilisation of women as mothers and carers. Undoubtedly, the protection of women's reproduction has been one of the major policies North Korean leaders have upheld. However, the approach has been paternalistic, gendered and instrumental in ways that serve the interests of the regime. Women's voices have been silenced and women's reproductive practices and have not been well reflected in the official discourses.
Due to recent social, economic and cultural changes in North Korea, women have begun to resist official measures imposed on them to have more children. To some degree, women's attitude towards marriage, family and children has also shifted. Based on women's narratives, the chapter then focuses on women's harsh lived reality as they struggle to manage their health in the context of heavy workloads, an increasingly privatised and costly health system and ongoing lack of access to affordable medicines and hygiene products. It explores how these challenges have influenced women's self-management of their reproductive health, including their contraceptive and childbirth practices. Women are increasingly making their own decisions about their bodies and reproductive functions through their own covert acts to reclaim their bodily integrity and autonomy, all significant acts of resistance and a reclamation of individual dignity.
