North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was seen wiping tears as he was emotional in a video from a recent event where he called for efforts to tackle the country’s falling birth rates. In the video, which has been widely shared on social media, Kim Jong Un can be seen looking down and wiping away tears.
“Preventing a decline in birth rates and good childcare are all of our housekeeping duties we need to handle while working with mothers,” he was quoted as saying by the news agency Reuters. The incident happened at the National Mothers Meeting hosted for mothers in Pyongyang, it was reported.
Thanking mothers for their role in strengthening national power, Kim Jong Un said, “I too always think about mothers when I have a hard time dealing with the party and the state’s work.”
The United Nations Population Fund estimates that the fertility rate stood at 1.8 in North Korea amid an extended fall in the rate during recent decades. Although, this remains higher than in some of North Korea’s neighbours. South Korea saw its fertility rate drop to a record low of 0.78 last year. Japan’s fertility rate also dropped to 1.26. South Korea is also facing a shortage of pediatricians, reports claimed while one city is hosting matchmaking events to boost birth rates in the country.
North Korea has a population of about 25 million people. The isolated country has faced serious food shortages owing to deadly famine in the 1990s and other natural disasters.
