Mick Hartley

Why North Koreans are not having children – interviews at the Daily NK:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made waves when he mentioned his country’s “declining birth rate” 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’s low birth rate in a public setting.

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.

Daily NK spoke with three people in their 30s who live in Hyesan, Hoeryong, and Sinuiju – cities on North Korea’s 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. 

“A,” a resident of Hyesan, got married in 2019 but is not currently planning to have any children.

“Looking at five of my friends, the three that are married are planning to remain child-free, while the other two don’t even want to get married. Times have changed, and people are giving up on the idea of having children,” “A” told Daily NK. 

“It’s exhausting and terrifying to even think about bearing and raising children at a time when it’s 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’s undernourished state to take them out in public.”

“A” mentioned a 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.

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. 

Since the start of the pandemic, there also appears to have been a marked decrease in marriage and childbirth in Hoeryong, North Hamgyong Province.

“It used to be that people would shake a finger at you if you weren’t married by the age of 30, but what I’m hearing now is that I’ve made the smart choice,” said “B,” an unmarried resident of Hoeryong.

“B” said that was probably because “everyone went through so much pain and hardship over the past few years that attitudes have changed.”

“I doubt I’d write off marriage if I could make a living from working at a market. But I can’t escape the cycle of poverty no matter what I do, and it’s hard enough just keeping myself fed. So I don’t 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’s better not to have children at all,” “B” said.

By the same token, “C,” an unmarried resident of Sinuiju, noted that it’s uncommon to see women with a child on their backs these days.

“And even when I do see one, my first thought is to pity the child for all the hardship they’ll have to endure. Everybody knows that unless you’re born to a government official or businessperson, a life of suffering begins at the moment of birth,” “C” said.