Yoon to create new senior secretary position to tackle low birth rate

President Yoon Suk Yeol will create a new senior presidential secretary position to help tackle the country's low birth rate, his office said Monday. During a weekly meeting with his senior secretaries, Yoon called for preparations to establish a new office for senior presidential secretary for low birth rate issues, according to his spokesperson, Kim Soo-kyung. The instruction came days after Yoon said in an address to the nation that he will create a new ministry to oversee low birth rate issues and have its chief double as the deputy prime minister for social affairs. South Korea's total fertility rate, or the average number of children expected to be born to a woman over her lifetime, reached a record low 0.72 in 2023. The figure is far below the 2.1 births per woman needed to maintain a stable population without immigration. Source: Yonhap News Agency