North Korea’s Kim Jong-un says it is ‘duty of women’ to have more children to halt falling birth rate

North Korea implemented a birth control programme in the 1970-80s to slow a post-war population growth, but its fertility rate declined after a mid-1990s famine

A falling fertility rate is a concerning development for a country that depends on mobilised labour to help keep its broken, heavily sanctioned economy afloat

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Published: 3:00am, 5 Dec 2023Updated: 11:37pm, 5 Dec 2023

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said it is a duty of women to halt a fall in the country’s births to strengthen national power, state media said on Monday, as his government steps up the call for the people to have more children.

While getting a detailed read on North Korea’s population trends is extremely difficult because of the limited statistics it discloses, South Korea’s government assesses that the North’s fertility rate has declined steadily for the past 10 years.

That is a concerning development for a country that depends on mobilised labour to help keep its broken, heavily sanctioned economy afloat.

Stopping the decline in birth rates and providing good child care and education are all our family affairs that we should solve together with our mothers

Kim Jong-un, North Korean leader

“Stopping the decline in birth rates and providing good child care and education are all our family affairs that we should solve together with our mothers,” Kim said in his opening speech.

According to South Korea’s government statistics agency, North Korea’s total fertility rate, or the average number of babies expected to be born to a woman over her lifetime, was at 1.79 in 2022, down from 1.88 in 2014. The decline is still slower than its wealthier rival South Korea, whose fertility rate last year was 0.78, down from 1.20 in 2014.

South Korea’s fertility rate, the lowest in the developed world, is believed to be due to a potent cocktail of reasons discouraging people from having babies, including a decaying job market, a brutally competitive school environment for children, traditionally weak child care help and a male-centred corporate culture where many women find it impossible to combine careers and family.

While North Korea is one of the poorest nations in the world, the change in its demographic structure is similar to that of rich countries, some observers say.