President Yoon Suk Yeol held a rare press conference Thursday and vowed to create a ministry to address the country’s record-low birth rate. Photo by Yonhap

The head of the new ministry will draw up policies across the education, labor and welfare sectors, Yoon said.

“We will go beyond simple welfare policies and make it a national agenda,” he added.

South Korea’s total fertility rate for 2023 fell to 0.72, down from 0.78 the previous year — meaning that for every 100 women, just 72 babies are expected to be born over their lifetimes.

That mark is by far the lowest in the world, less than half the average rate of the 38 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

A number of factors, including high housing and education costs and gender inequality in the workplace, have made young people reluctant to start families. The government has tried various incentives to help entice families to have children, including a cash allowance for newborns that was raised to roughly $750 per month at the start of the year.

Thursday’s press conference was Yoon’s first since August 2022 and comes in the wake of a landslide loss by his ruling People Power Party in mid-term parliamentary elections last month.

The opposition Democratic Party claimed 175 out of 300 seats in the National Assembly, holding onto a majority that will impede the conservative Yoon’s agenda for the remaining three years of his mandatory single five-year term.

Yoon vowed Thursday to improve communication with the public across the remainder of his term.

“In the next three years, my government and I will listen to the voices of the people and take care of the people’s livelihood more carefully,” he said.

The former prosecutor laid out his policy agenda, including boosting private-sector economic growth and increasing pensions for senior citizens, while touting his administration’s strengthened relationships with the United States and Japan.

Yoon also addressed the highly publicized scandal around First Lady Kim Keon Hee accepting the gift of a Dior bag, which has simmered for months and was seen as a factor in his party’s defeat at the mid-term polls.

“I apologize for causing concern to the people with the unwise conduct of my wife,” Yoon said.