Seoul, South Korea:
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol held a rare news conference on Thursday, admitting “shortcomings” after his party's recent electoral defeat and laying out policies on issues from the country's low birth rate to Russia's war in Ukraine.
The press conference was the president's first in almost two years and comes after his party suffered a drubbing in last month's parliamentary elections.
On Ukraine, Yoon vowed to maintain strong ties with Kiev while maintaining a smooth relationship with Russia, ruling out direct arms supplies and telling reporters it was his “firm position” not to send lethal weapons to countries at war.
On South Korea's birth rate, one of the lowest in the world, he unveiled plans to set up a ministry to tackle the issue, which he described as “a national emergency”.
His party's defeat in the April 10 parliamentary election led to calls for Yoon to change his policy direction and leadership style as his popularity fades less than halfway through his five-year term.
Yoon said he has “thought a lot about the shortcomings” of his government.
“The communication to explain the policy drivers and the degree of change people have felt is lacking,” he said.
Birth rate ministry
Yoon won the 2022 presidential election by the smallest margin in South Korea's history, and his term in office was hampered by a series of scandals and his party's lack of a parliamentary majority.
The president also apologized for what he called the “unwise behavior” of his wife, first lady Kim Keon Hee, after hidden camera footage showed her accepting a luxury handbag last year, in violation of government ethics rules .
But Yoon said the opposition's call for a special investigation into the first lady was “politically motivated.”
His plan to restore the country's dismal birth rate comes after it hit a record low in 2023, despite the government pouring billions of dollars into efforts to encourage women to have more children and maintain population stability.
Yoon said he would ask lawmakers to work together “in setting up the Ministry of Counterplanning for Low Birth Rates.”
“We will establish a low birth control department to establish a more aggressive and powerful control tower,” he said.
“To overcome the low birth rate, which can be considered a national emergency, we will fully mobilize all the capabilities of the state,” he added.
The country's fertility rate – the number of children a woman is expected to have in her lifetime – fell to 0.72 in 2023, almost eight percent lower than in 2022, according to preliminary data from Statistics Korea in February.
That's far below the 2.1 children needed to sustain the current population of 51 million, which at this rate will nearly halve by the year 2100, experts estimate.
Weapons policy
Yoon, who has taken a tough stance on the nuclear-armed North, said his country's ties with Moscow are under strain over what Seoul and its ally Washington say are arms shipments from North Korea to Russia.
“North Korea's export of offensive weapons not only supports illegally waging war with Ukraine, but also clearly violates UN Security Council sanctions resolutions regarding North Korea's nuclear weapons,” Yoon said.
Despite tensions with Moscow over the alleged arms shipments, Yoon said he aims to “manage our relationship with Russia as smoothly as possible.”
But he said Seoul would not revise its long-standing policy of not selling weapons in active conflicts, which has prevented the country from providing military aid to Ukraine.
Seoul has long aspired to join the world's top arms exporters – aiming to become the fourth largest after the United States, Russia and France – something that is now possible, industry research shows.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Our staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)