North Korea marked International Women's Day last week in its own way, urging its female population to reject Western fashions, and raise their children as dedicated revolutionaries. The ruling Workers' Party, in an editorial in its official paper, Rodong Sinmun, emphatically warned women against harboring the "reactionary ideas and alien lifestyles which are propagated by imperialists to stir up our society."

The world knows how wretched the life of North Korean women has been all these years because of the famines, floods, and repression. When we envision women in the North, what comes to mind is long lines of them in thick cotton-padded jackets to shield their bodies against the biting cold, and waiting to get rice delivered from South Korea and other countries. Instead of really helping the mothers who have had to watch helplessly as their children starve to death, the North's leaders exhort them to arm themselves ever more strongly with revolutionary principles and class consciousness.

There are growing fears in the Pyongyang regime that capitalist culture may penetrate the society, in tandem with international aid activities and increasing access to global communications. The Rodong Sinmun editorial thus asks North Korean women to "set good examples in all fields of culture and customs, including clothes, hairdos and language."

This indoctrination, however, has little to do with the miseries which women there endure. A Seoul daily last week reported that North Korean women are being "sold" to Chinese farmers in sham marriages, so that the men can have children. One photo showed a woman wading through the shallow water of the Duman River in the dark, accompanied by a man. All she had on were panties, and she carried her clothes in a bundle to keep them dry, so that she could wear them once she crossed the border, and pretend to be a local.

The Chosun Ilbo interviewed a Mrs. Jo, who lives in Yenji, about her fourth escape to China. She has been deported three times. She discussed her life of grueling farm work and occasional beatings, in exchange for the 900,000 won that was given to her family. There are sad lives everywhere, but the plight of North Korean women is particularly heart-rending because of the indifference of their government.