South Korean President calls low birth rate a ‘national emergency’
President Yoon Suk Yeol said Wednesday he will reexamine the policy response to tackle South Korea's low birth rate by creating a new ministry fully dedicated to overcoming what he called a "national emergency," Yonhap reports.
Yoon reiterated the plan to create the new ministry during an address to the Asian Leadership Conference held in Seoul.
"We will establish the low birth response planning ministry to review the policy from the ground up and fully commit to overcoming the national emergency of the low birth rate," Yoon said in an opening speech.
"The low birth rate is a problem intertwined with various social and cultural factors, and fundamental solutions require a nationwide effort to innovate across society," he added.
Yoon earlier said the head of the new ministry will double as the deputy minister for social affairs and draw up policies across the education, labor and welfare sectors.
The establishment of a new ministry requires a revision of the government organization law in the opposition-controlled National Assembly.
South Korea's total fertility rate, or the average number of children expected to be born to a woman over her lifetime, reached a record low of 0.72 in 2023, one of the lowest in the world.
The figure is far below the 2.1 births per woman needed to maintain a stable population without immigration.