The North Korean leader calls for women to have more children to halt a fall in the birthrate

By KIM TONG-HYUNG and HYUNG-JIN KIM
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un says it is a duty of women to halt a fall in the country’s birthrate. He described it as crucial for the “strengthening of national power and progress of the revolution,” state media said Monday. It was the latest in a series of government statements calling for people to have more children. While getting a detailed read on North Korea’s population trends is difficult because of the limited statistics it discloses, South Korea’s government assesses that the North’s birthrate has declined steadily for the past 10 years. That is a concerning development for a country that mainly depends on mobilized labor to help keep afloat its broken, heavily sanctioned economy.