MIRROR
North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un cried in parliament as he begged for women to have more children as the country’s birth rate has plummeted.
The despot was pictured wiping tears with a white handkerchief while addressing thousands of women at a national mothers’ meeting in the capital Pyongyang. He said women must halt a fall in the country’s births to strengthen national power, according to state media.
As it is a highly secretive state, the country discloses very few details about its population trends. However, South Korea’s government estimates its fertility rate has declined steadily for the past decade. According to North Korean state media reports this year, the country has introduced a set of benefits for families with three or more children, including preferential free housing arrangements, state subsidies, free food, medicine household goods and educational perks for children.
Kim told mothers their “primary revolutionary task” was to drill “socialist virtues” into their offspring and instil loyalty to the ruling party during his address. He continued: “Stopping the decline in birth rates and providing good child care and education are all our family affairs that we should solve together with our mothers.”
The North Korean leader also reportedly warned parents to eliminate foreign influence on young minds, instructing them to send their children to perform hard labour for the state to correct bad behaviour that is not “our style.” North Korea implemented birth control programs in the 1970s-80s to slow postwar population growth.
