[Watch] After Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un Asks Women To Have More Babies

New Delhi:  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wiped tears and looked emotional in a video from a recent event where he called for efforts to tackle the country’s falling birth rates and urged women to have more children. The video has gone viral.

“Preventing a decline in birth rates and good childcare are all of our housekeeping duties we need to handle while working with mothers,” Kim was quoted as saying by the news agency Reuters at the event for mothers in Pyongyang on Sunday.

He also thanked mothers for their role in strengthening national power.

“I too always think about mothers when I have a hard time dealing with the party and the state’s work,” Kim said.

According to the United Nations Population Fund estimate, as of 2023, the fertility rate, or the average number of children being born to a woman, stood at 1.8 in North Korea, amid an extended fall in the rate during recent decades.

The fertility rate remains higher than in some of North Korea’s neighbours, which have been grappling with a similar downward trend.

South Korea saw its fertility rate drop to a record low of 0.78 last year, while Japan saw its figure drop to 1.26.

The dwindling birth rates in South Korea have caused a shortage of pediatricians, while one city is hosting matchmaking events to boost birth rates, the report added.