Kim Jong Un caught on video camera as he cries while urging North Korean women to have more children and raise them to be loyal to the state.
Video shows Kim Jong Un cries on camera urging women to stop the country’s falling birth rates
The leader was seen wiping his eyes with a white handkerchief while speaking to a large audience of women at a national mothers meeting in Pyongyang.
NEW: North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un cries as he tells women to have more babies pic.twitter.com/F07pENE3cC
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The emotional event, the first of its kind in 11 years, Telegraph reported. It raised worries about a declining birth rate in the secretive state, with many in the audience also seen crying.
“Stopping the decline in birthrates and providing good child care and education are all our family affairs that we should solve together with our mothers,” said Kim. The North Korean dictator is speculated to have children.
A lot of the women at the gathering wore traditional multi-colored outfits and openly expressed their emotions by crying, according to GBNews. This event was organized due to North Korea’s declining birth rate, and it seems the country is genuinely worried about this trend.
The latest population data from North Korea dates back to 2008 when the census reported a population of 24 million in the isolated state.
North Korea’s Falling Birth Rate
The unification ministry in South Korea mentioned that Kim’s recent address was the first time he publicly acknowledged a decline in births in his country.
Data from the United Nations Population Fund and the World Bank indicates that North Korea’s fertility rate has been around 1.79-1.8 children per woman since 2020.
This is a significant drop from the high of 4.05 in the late 1960s and below the replacement level of 2.1 by the late 1990s. The decrease was influenced by birth control programs in the 1970s and 80s aimed at curbing postwar population growth.
Additionally, a severe famine in the mid-1990s, estimated to have claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, also contributed to the decline.
