Kim Jong Un, known for his strict rules and persona, has surprised many with a recently surfaced video where he appears to be crying while urging North Korean women to have more children. Reports suggest that he became emotional during this plea.
Kim, addressing the declining birth rate in North Korea, urged women in the country to have more children as part of an effort to boost ‘national power.’
The video that went viral soon after it surfaced shows Kim Jong Un visibly emotional, shedding tears and using a white handkerchief to wipe his eyes during a women’s event in the capital, Pyongyang.
Kim Jong Un CRIES while telling North Korean women to have more babies.
The dictator shed tears while speaking at the National Mothers Meeting as he urged women to boost the countries birth rate. pic.twitter.com/J354CyVnln
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) December 5, 2023
According to media reports, during the program, Kim Jong Un remarked, “Preventing a decline in birth rates and good childcare are all of our housekeeping duties we need to handle while working with mothers,’ He also thanked mothers for their continuous role in strengthening national power.
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The United Nations Population Fund estimates that as of 2023, the fertility rate, or the average number of children being born to a woman, stood at 1.8 in North Korea, amid an extended fall in the rate during recent decades.
The fertility rate remains higher in North Korea than in some of its neighbours, which have been grappling with a similar downward trend. South Korea saw its fertility rate drop down to 0.78 last year, while Japan’s figures dropped to 1.26.
North Korea, has a population of about 25 million people. The country had to contend with serious food shortages, including deadly famine in the 90s, often because of natural disasters such as floods damaging harvests.
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