Kwak Yeon-soo is a digital editor at The Korea Times creating, editing and curating digital content for the newspaper’s website, mobile app and social media. She previously covered a diverse array of cultural, political and business topics.
Korea to create deputy prime minister-level body to tackle low birthrate
Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min speaks during a press briefing at the Government Complex Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
By Kwak Yeon-soo
Gov't puts abolishing gender equality ministry on hold
Korea will create a deputy prime minister-level ministry tasked with tackling the low birthrate and aging population as the country faces a demographic crisis, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced Monday.
The government said the new ministry, tentatively named the Ministry of Population Strategy Planning, will serve as a control tower for demographic issues, including the low birthrate, aging population, workforce and immigration.
The ministry will draw up population policies and medium- to long-term strategies, taking over the tasks currently managed by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Economy and Finance. It will coordinate and oversee policies encompassing all related matters such as education, labor and welfare. It will also be tasked with allocating and coordinating budgets for combating low birthrates across various related ministries.
So far, matters involving the low birthrate have been handled by several different ministries, including the health, gender equality and education ministries. The Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy has served as a control tower, but its role was rather symbolic because, like other committees, it is not authorized to implement policies.
“The newly formed ministry will aim to strengthen the nation’s workforce policy as we are currently experiencing declining births and a shrinking population. There is a mismatch between labor demand and labor supply in each sector. In order to avoid this, greater attention should be given to strengthening the overall social fabric and ensuring a workforce for older adults and foreign workers,” the ministry official said during a press briefing.
The government will propose a related bill in July for the launch of the ministry. President Yoon Suk Yeol asked the opposition parties, which control the 22nd National Assembly, to cooperate in revising the Government Organization Act for the establishment of the new ministry.
President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a session of the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, June 19. Yonhap
Meanwhile, the plan to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family was omitted in the reform plan following a high-level meeting between the government and the ruling People Power Party.
“During the internal review process, we have decided to focus on more pressing issues considering that the ruling and opposition parties have reached a certain level of consensus on tackling the low birthrate,” the official said. “We will further discuss the dissolution of the gender equality ministry in the new Assembly at a later date.”
Yoon has been pushing to dismantle the gender equality ministry, but the bill was scrapped at the 21st National Assembly due to opposition from other parties. The ministerial position has been vacant since February.
Korea has the world’s lowest birthrate, being the only country to have its total fertility rate below 1 among the 38 OECD members as of 2021.
According to Statistics Korea, the nation’s total fertility rate last year was 0.72, down from 0.78 the previous year. Statistics Korea estimated that the country’s population would decrease to 36.22 million in 2072 from 51.44 million in 2023 and that more than half of the population would be aged 60 or older.