North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was seen wiping away tears as he pleaded with thousands of women at the National Mothers’ Meeting on Sunday to address the sharp decline in the country’s birth rate.
The dictator, using a handkerchief, emphasized the importance of increasing birth rates and ensuring quality childcare, stating, “Preventing a decline in birth rates and good childcare are all of our housekeeping duties we need to handle while working with mothers.”
Addressing the women as “Dear Mothers,” Kim Jong-un outlined the tasks at hand, he said, “These tasks include bringing up their children so that they will steadfastly carry forward our revolution, eliminating the recently-increasing non-socialist practices, promoting family harmony and social unity, establishing a sound way of cultural and moral life, making the communist virtues and traits of helping and leading one another forward prevail over our society, stopping the declining birth rate, and taking good care of children and educating them effectively.”
While reacting on the urgency of the situation, Kim Jong-un also stated, “These belong to our common family affairs, which we need to deal with by joining hands with our mothers.”
The United Nations Population Fund estimates North Korea’s average fertility rate to be 1.8 in 2023, despite a decline in birth rates over the past few decades. Certain North Korean neighborhoods have shown relatively higher fertility rates compared to others.
