Babies are seen in infant units of a hospital in Incheon in February. - Photo: Newsis
SEOUL: The compounding challenges of South Korea’s low birth rate and the onset of a super-aged society have drawn little focus on the presidential campaign trail for the June 3 presidential election.
The numbers alone underscore the urgency of strategically and systemically confronting the demographic crisis.
South Korea’s fertility rate was recorded at 0.75 in 2024, meaning the average South Korean woman is expected to have fewer than one child in her lifetime.
Still, the country found a sliver of relief in the data, as 2024 marked the first time in nine years that the birth rate had not declined.
At the same time, however, the nation officially transitioned into a “super-aged society” in December 2024 — a milestone that arrived earlier than expected.
Observers called for a more holistic approach to devising campaign promises that tackle these demographic challenges, saying the next five years would be crucial to determining the country's fate.
They warned that South Korea might otherwise be plagued by a range of social problems: the demise of remote rural areas, a workforce shortage, weaker military strength and a pension fund crisis, among other things.
At the moment, most of the presidential candidates' promises have centered on financial incentives to alleviate demographic crises, rather than blueprints to overcome the deep-rooted challenges.
The issue of tackling the low birth rate emerged as one of the "top 10" campaign promises, disclosed via the election authorities, made by both liberal Democratic Party of Korea candidate Rep. Lee Jae-myung and conservative People Power Party candidate Kim Moon-soo.
Both Lee and Kim promised to provide housing support, tax relief and other financial incentives to assist with child-rearing costs.
The two also proposed to provide financial support for infertility treatment and encouraged the creation of state-sponsored child investment accounts upon a child's birth.
The candidates from the two main parties both promised that they would begin implementing these policies this year if elected.
Targeting the growing number of older adults — in the country where more than 20 percent of the population is aged 65 or older — Lee and Kim both proposed plans to have nursing expenses in senior care centers covered by the National Health Insurance System, and enhance the sustainability of South Korea's mandatory retirement scheme.
The minor conservative New Reform Party candidate, Rep. Lee Jun-seok, suggested a tax incentive for newly married couples purchasing a new house in his "top 10" campaign promises, but the demographic issue was not included in his top pledges.
Stale incentives, no strategy
Experts doubted that voters could expect more than a gradual expansion of ongoing government projects for financial incentives, as opposed to a comprehensive blueprint.
“A major shift in this population strategy is essential for the sake of the country’s survival and citizens' quality of life and happiness, but no presidential candidate has declared that such a shift will be taken up as their most important agenda,” Kim Young-mi, professor of social welfare at Dongseo University, told The Korea Herald.
According to the candidates' campaign pledges filed with the election authorities, none of the top three candidates estimated the cost that the country would have to cover to implement such policies.
The disclosures also revealed that none of them anticipated what the outcome of these policies would be.
“Most of the population crisis-related pledges by these parties to provide financial incentives (to a citizen), stem from policies that have been underway for the past 10 to 15 years,” said Lee Jae-mook, professor of political science at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.
“We need to talk about why it didn't work from a wider perspective.”
Kim of Dongseo University, who formerly served as vice chair of the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy during Yoon's tenure, suggested that financial incentives to companies could be more effective than current promises meant to offer direct incentives to individual citizens.
“Achieving a work-family balance in a company is not something that can be done through government policies alone,” Kim said.
“Incentives to induce a company to change its working environment are critical, but we cannot find them on the candidates’ campaign pledges.”
Lee echoed Kim, saying, "The concept of parental leave has actually become widespread in many large companies and state-run institutions, but if you are working in a smaller company, parental leave is still hard to use, which hampers South Korea's championing of work-family balance."
No structural vision for demographics
Experts also pointed out that, as of Wednesday, no presidential candidate has proposed to establish a ministry dedicated to South Korea's population planning.
The former Yoon administration floated a plan to consolidate population planning-related functions across different ministries into a new decision-making ministry.
This, led by a deputy prime minister, would be tasked with budget planning and execution of plans at the same time.
Kim said it was important for candidates to consider government reorganisation during their campaigning period, especially because the next president would take office without a transition period.
The June 3 election is an extraordinary one due to former president Yoon’s impeachment.
“The reorganisation of the government itself might not sound very attractive to voters. … But given the shortage of time for a newly elected leader, there should be a proposal for the reorganisation of the government now,” Kim said.
A televised debate on Friday involving Democratic Party candidate Lee, New Reform Pary candidate Lee, People Power Party candidate Kim and Democratic Labour Party candidate Kwon Young-gook, will cover social issues including the demographic crisis.
“I don’t think there was enough time to prepare campaign pledges because this is an early presidential election (brought on by an impeachment),” said Lee of Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, adding the election takes place at a time when voters remain highly ideologically polarised and policy proposals would have less sway over voters.
“This is a presidential election (after) South Korea’s martial law crisis,” he said. - The Korea Herald/ANN
