Acting budget minister says addressing demographic crisis top priority

▲ This file photo, taken Nov. 26, 2025, shows a nurse caring for a baby at a hospital in the city of Goyang, Gyeonggi Province. (Yonhap)

govt-demographic crisis

Acting budget minister says addressing demographic crisis top priority

SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Yonhap) -- Acting Budget Minister Lim Ki-geun said Friday that South Korea's plunging birthrate has become the nation's most urgent challenge, calling for swift and effective countermeasures.

He made the remarks at a government expert forum on demographic challenges, describing the issue as the most urgent among the country's five major structural reform tasks.

Lim cited recent remarks by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who sarcastically underscored the severity of the country's demographic situation in an interview.

Musk said, "North Korea won't need to invade. They can just walk across," warning that South Korea's population could shrink sharply within a few decades if current trends continue.

Calling the criticism "painful but necessary," Lim reiterated that addressing the population crisis is the government's top reform priority.

Other key reform areas include a large-scale transition to artificial intelligence (AI) and efforts to address widening social polarization.

Based on discussions at the forum, Lim said the government plans to set clear goals and performance indicators for a mid- to long-term national population strategy.

He added that officials will continue to gather input from across society to develop sustainable growth policies in response to demographic changes.

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