North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has reportedly asked for measures to be made to address the declining birth rates in the isolated country. According to a story that the state-run media published on Monday, he referred to the task as “everyone’s housekeeping.”
On Sunday, Kim made the remarks while she was in Pyongyang for an event geared toward moms.
“Preventing a decline in birth rates and providing good childcare are all of our housekeeping duties we need to handle while working with mothers,” Kim told the audience during the conference.
The United Nations Population Fund estimates that the fertility rate, which refers to the average number of children that are born to a woman in North Korea, stood at 1.8 in 2023. This is even though the fertility rate has steadily decreased over the last several decades.
Even though several of North Korea’s neighbors have been struggling with a similar declining trend, the birth rate in North Korea continues to be greater than in other communities.
During the previous year, the fertility rate in South Korea reached an all-time low of 0.78, while the fertility rate in Japan dropped to 1.26.
South Korea is experiencing a scarcity of doctors due to the declining birth rates, while one city is holding matching events to increase the number of births in that city.
Over the last several decades, North Korea, which has a population of over 25 million people, has also been forced to deal with severe food shortages, including a famine that claimed the lives of many people in the 1990s. These shortages are frequently the consequence of natural catastrophes such as floods that have damaged harvests.
Kim of North Korea thanked moms for augmenting the nation’s might. “I, too, always think about mothers when I have a hard time dealing with the party and the state’s work,” Kim said.
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