Over the Thanksgiving break, I didn't think a lot about politics. Nevertheless, I found this story fascinating. After all, we are talking about South Korea, a country that we've been protecting for decades. Check this out:

South Korea's fertility rate, already the world's lowest, continued its dramatic decline in 2023, as women concerned about their career advancement and the financial cost of raising children decided to delay childbirth or to not have babies.

The average number of expected babies for a South Korean woman during her reproductive life fell to a record low of 0.72 from 0.78 in 2022.

As they say, I didn't see that one coming. I had no idea that South Korea was doing this to itself.  At this rate, we may have more troops on their border than South Koreans to protect.

It gets more interesting. Check this out:

South Korea’s leader on Thursday said he plans to create a new government ministry to tackle the “national emergency” of the country’s infamously low birth rate as it grapples with a deepening demographic crisis.

In a televised address, President Yoon Suk Yeol said he would ask for parliament’s cooperation to establish the Ministry of Low Birth Rate Counter-planning.

“We will mobilize all of the nation’s capabilities to overcome the low birth rate, which can be considered a national emergency,” he said.

Not sure how you mobilize people to have more babies. Tax credits or something like that?

So hug a South Korean and tell them how much you appreciate them. Truthfully there may not be a lot of them to hug in a few decades.

P.S. Check out my blog for posts, podcasts and videos.