{"id":56953,"date":"2023-12-22T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=56953"},"modified":"2023-12-23T08:46:05","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T23:46:05","slug":"three-n-koreans-help-explain-their-countrys-declining-birth-rate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/three-n-koreans-help-explain-their-countrys-declining-birth-rate\/","title":{"rendered":"Three N. Koreans help explain their country’s declining birth rate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made waves when he mentioned his country’s \u201cdeclining birth rate\u201d while delivering the opening remarks at the Fifth National Conference of Mothers in Pyongyang on Dec. 3. That was the first time he has acknowledged the issue of North Korea\u2019s low birth rate in a public setting.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, there are reportedly a growing number of young people in North Korea who are disinclined to have children. As recently as a few years ago, most young people said they wanted to have one child. But those young people have undergone an economic crisis that has squeezed livelihoods since the outbreak of COVID-19, and many of them no longer want to have children.<\/span><\/p>\n

Daily NK spoke with three people in their 30s who live in Hyesan, Hoeryong, and Sinuiju – cities on North Korea\u2019s border with China – to hear what young people think about the birthrate and raising children in North Korea. All three individuals requested anonymity for security reasons. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA,\u201d a resident of Hyesan, got married in 2019 but is not currently planning to have any children.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at five of my friends, the three that are married are planning to remain child-free, while the other two don\u2019t even want to get married. Times have changed, and people are giving up on the idea of having children,\u201d “A” told Daily NK. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exhausting and terrifying to even think about bearing and raising children at a time when it\u2019s tough to even keep food on the table every day. Sometimes, I feel it would be nice to have a lovely child to raise, but that feeling fades whenever I see parents struggling to feed their children and those who are too ashamed of their children\u2019s undernourished state to take them out in public.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA\u201d mentioned a <\/span>neighborhood watch unit in Hyesan that used to welcome one or two newborns each year. From the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 to the present, just two children have been born in the unit, and neither of them this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neighborhood watch units are typically made up of around 20 households. The units meet on a regular basis to hear updates regarding government policy, hold criticism sessions, and help organize free labor for government-led projects. <\/p>\n

Hoeryong also sees decline in marriages and births<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since the start of the pandemic, there also appears to have been a marked decrease in marriage and childbirth in Hoeryong, North Hamgyong Province.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt used to be that people would shake a finger at you if you weren\u2019t married by the age of 30, but what I\u2019m hearing now is that I\u2019ve made the smart choice,\u201d said \u201cB,\u201d an unmarried resident of Hoeryong.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cB\u201d said that was probably because \u201ceveryone went through so much pain and hardship over the past few years that attitudes have changed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI doubt I\u2019d write off marriage if I could make a living from working at a market. But I can\u2019t escape the cycle of poverty no matter what I do, and it\u2019s hard enough just keeping myself fed. So I don\u2019t even dare to think about getting married or having children. Compared to having children who are doomed to suffer, which would be agonizing for me, I think it\u2019s better not to have children at all,\u201d \u201cB\u201d said.<\/span><\/p>\n

By the same token, \u201cC,\u201d an unmarried resident of Sinuiju, noted that it\u2019s uncommon to see women with a child on their backs these days.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd even when I do see one, my first thought is to pity the child for all the hardship they\u2019ll have to endure. Everybody knows that unless you\u2019re born to a government official or businessperson, a life of suffering begins at the moment of birth,\u201d \u201cC\u201d said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYoung people don\u2019t want their children to go through all the suffering they\u2019ve experienced, which is why they don\u2019t want children at all. Most people say they don\u2019t feel confident about raising children in the current situation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to the 2023 population data sheet published by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) on Nov. 13, North Korea\u2019s total fertility rate (the average number of children that a woman of childbearing age is expected to have in her lifetime) was 1.8, which is less than the 2.1 needed to maintain the population.<\/span><\/p>\n

The same data sheet found that North Korea has a crude birth rate (the number of people born for every 1,000 population) of 12.9, which is lower than the Asia-Pacific average of 13.6.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Daily NK works with a network of sources who live inside North Korea, China and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK\u2019s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page\u00a0here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read in Korean<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made waves when he mentioned his country’s \u201cdeclining birth rate\u201d while delivering the opening remarks at the Fifth National Conference of Mothers in Pyongyang on Dec. 3. That was the first time he has acknowledged the issue of North Korea\u2019s low birth rate in a public setting. In fact, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":39568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,1360],"tags":[703,1189,1445,1656,1986],"class_list":["post-56953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-society","tag-education","tag-children","tag-marriage","tag-dprk","tag-families"],"yoast_head":"\nThree N. 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