Kim Jong-Un tearfully urges North Korea’s women to have more children to counteract a decline in the birth rate that is undermining the country’s stability. At a televised event, the National Mothers’ Meeting in Pyongyang, the leader spoke to a female audience. A heartfelt speech, between tears and sobs, with extensive use of the handkerchief to dry the tears. “Preventing the decline in the birth rate and ensuring child care are the duties we must pay attention to when working with mothers,” Kim said, addressing the women, many of whom wore traditional clothing, all or almost all of them moving and eager applauded.
“These goals include educating children to tirelessly advance our revolution, eliminating non-socialist practices that have been on the rise in recent times, promoting family harmony and social unity, establishing an appropriate pattern of cultural and social life, and enforcing the “Communist values of solidarity” in our society by stopping the decline in birth rates and taking care of children with effective education,” said Kim. North Korea’s demographic picture is unclear.
The last census announced was in 2008, when the population was 24 million people. According to estimates by international experts, the number is now at 25.7 million. According to South Korean government authorities, North Korea is actually struggling with a sharp decline in the birth rate: from an average of 1.88 children born to each woman in 2014, the number fell to 1.79 in 2022.