<p>Seoul: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for efforts to tackle the isolated country's falling birth rates, describing the challenge as "everyone's housekeeping", state media <em>KCNA</em> reported on Monday.</p><p>Kim made the comments during an event for mothers in Pyongyang on Sunday.</p><p>"Preventing a decline in birth rates and good childcare are all of our housekeeping duties we need to handle while working with mothers," Kim said at the event.</p><p>The United Nations Population Fund estimates that as of 2023 the fertility rate, or the average number of children being born to a woman in North Korea, stood at 1.8, amid an extended fall in the rate during recent decades.</p><p>The fertility rate remains higher than in some of North Korea's neighbours, which have been grappling with a similar downward trend.</p>.North Korea says interference in its satellites would be declaration of war.<p>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.</p><p>The dwindling birth rates in South Korea have caused a shortage of pediatricians, while one city is hosting matchmaking events to boost birth rates.</p><p>North Korea, which has a population of about 25 million people, has in recent decades also had to contend with serious food shortages, including deadly famine in the 1990s, often a result of natural disasters such as floods damaging harvests.</p><p>The North Korean leader thanked mothers for their role in strengthening national power.</p><p>"I too always think about mothers when I have a hard time dealing with the party and the state's work," Kim said.</p>
<p>Seoul: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for efforts to tackle the isolated country's falling birth rates, describing the challenge as "everyone's housekeeping", state media <em>KCNA</em> reported on Monday.</p><p>Kim made the comments during an event for mothers in Pyongyang on Sunday.</p><p>"Preventing a decline in birth rates and good childcare are all of our housekeeping duties we need to handle while working with mothers," Kim said at the event.</p><p>The United Nations Population Fund estimates that as of 2023 the fertility rate, or the average number of children being born to a woman in North Korea, stood at 1.8, amid an extended fall in the rate during recent decades.</p><p>The fertility rate remains higher than in some of North Korea's neighbours, which have been grappling with a similar downward trend.</p>.North Korea says interference in its satellites would be declaration of war.<p>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.</p><p>The dwindling birth rates in South Korea have caused a shortage of pediatricians, while one city is hosting matchmaking events to boost birth rates.</p><p>North Korea, which has a population of about 25 million people, has in recent decades also had to contend with serious food shortages, including deadly famine in the 1990s, often a result of natural disasters such as floods damaging harvests.</p><p>The North Korean leader thanked mothers for their role in strengthening national power.</p><p>"I too always think about mothers when I have a hard time dealing with the party and the state's work," Kim said.</p>