Following his announcement of the upcoming establishment of a “low population answer planning government,” conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered his , leaders to begin a” full review” of all federal laws encouraging Koreans to have children on Friday.
During an extended press conference full of highlights, including an explanation offered for a bribery scandal involving First Lady , Kim Keon-hee, Yoon announced the anticipated creation of a new department to handle the nation’s baby price collapse on May 9. The scandal, in which Kim allegedly accepted a$ 2,200 Dior handbag as an illicit gift, reached its peak just before South Korea’s midterm elections in April, when Yoon’s People Power Party ( PPP ) was defeated by the left-wing Democratic Party.
The remarks were made on Friday during a “financial approach meeting” to reformulate Seoul’s provincial government spending, according to the Yonhap news agency. Yoon gave his administration the task of studying the absurd sum of money Seoul has spent on attempting to raise South Korea’s birth rate, which has increased by over$ 273 billion since 2006, and the relative achievement levels of individual programs.
There is n’t much evidence that the billions have changed anything. South Korea has had the lowest birth level in a century and continues to do so. As of 2023, the regional fertility rate stood at , 0.72 children per woman of childbearing age. Some parts of the country, quite as Seoul, have logged birth rates as low as , 0.55 children , per person. For contrast, “replacement fertility,” the rate at which people may have children in a nation to ensure the people stays secure, is 2.1 % per woman of childbearing age.
South Korea is in a situation where its senior citizen population is growing while only a few couples are having children, which could cause the nation to experience an economic crisis because there are n’t enough workers to keep up social safety net programs for the elderly. By 2044, according to some estimates, South Korea’s workforce may have lost up to 10 million people.
( Shizuo Kambayashi/AP )
In December, Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok lamented that the delivery rate collapse may not be reverseable, stating that” a ship like the Titanic has no choice but to fall by the time it discovers a reef.”
Yoon’s request for the development of a new department to handle the delivery rate on May 9 was followed by the evaluation of government expenditures that were announced on Friday.
” We will completely organize all state resources to address the small population, which can be regarded as a national emergency,” Yoon said at the time. Yoon announced he would create a “low birthrate response planning ministry” that would  , “establish policies encompassing education, labor and welfare, and make them a national agenda, going beyond a simple welfare policy”.
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” In order to overcome the low birth rate, which can be considered a national emergency, we will fully mobilise all of the state’s capabilities”, Yoon promised. In order to establish a more aggressive and potent control tower, we will be establishing a low-birth planning department.
Yoon made the announcement the following week that a new position in the presidential secretariat would be created for fertility issues.
The Presidential Committee on Aging Society and Population Policy, which has been in charge of the issue but had limited authority to carry out its mission, is the subject of this proposal, according to the Korean JoongAng Daily on May 13. The current allocation of the nation’s birth rate is split between the” Presidential Committee on Aging Society and Population Policy” established in 2006 and the senior presidential secretary for social affairs.
In a politically volatile environment where there were bitter rivalries, criminal accusations, and one significant assassination attempt, JoongAng noted that it is unusual to have more children among Korean couples when the election was marked by a rare “bipartisan” debate. The Democrats have indicated a willingness to work with Yoon, and the National Assembly, which is currently under the control of the opposition Democrats, would have to play a role in allowing the expansion of birth rate programs.
” We agree with the plan to create a ministry dedicated to the low birthrate issue” , , Park Chan- dae, who leads the Democrats on the Assembly floor, reportedly said on Thursday. We will actively examine whether the government and the People Power Party ( PPP ) can work together and whether there is anything we can do to help as the opposing party.
Polling and other investigations point to a number of main causes for the low birth rate, including economic concerns, which are especially expressed by women who fear they will lose their jobs if they become mothers, and a socially hostile environment for children. No-kid zones, which are businesses and public spaces that explicitly forbid children from being present, have grown in popularity in recent years, even enforcing strict rules preventing children from visiting libraries and other traditionally kid-friendly locations.
South Korean local government and federal government have done little to combat the social hostility, choosing to prioritize financial incentives instead. In January, the national government , announced it would pay parents an up- front$ 1, 500 bonus for every new child born. In April, Seoul city officials began considering a much larger bonus of about$ 72, 500, or 100 million won, for the birth of a baby, emulating a policy implemented by the private corporation , Booyoung Group.
Other cities have taken different initiatives. The government of Incheon implemented a sizable package of subsidies per child that were distributed throughout the child’s life, beginning at age 18; Authorities in Seongnam started organizing mass blind dating events to try to raise marriage rates and address the issue from the beginning.
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