In South Korea, the topic of raising the birth rate has again turned into a major scandal. According to the BBC, the head of Jindo County, Kim Hee-soo, said at an open meeting that it would be possible to “bring young women from Vietnam or Sri Lanka” and that they “could be married off to young men in rural areas”.
After these remarks were broadcast on television, public outrage sharply grew. The Vietnamese side issued a diplomatic protest, and debates inside the country intensified for several days. As a result, Kim was expelled from the ruling Democratic Party.
Kim later apologized, saying he wanted to draw attention to the demographic problem, but he admitted that the wording he used was “inappropriate”. South Jeolla Province also issued an official apology, stating that it “caused deep pain to Vietnamese people and to women”. The Vietnamese embassy described it as “not just a phrase, but an issue of values and attitudes toward migrant women and minority groups”. Sri Lankan officials have not yet made a public comment.
The meeting was originally convened to discuss merging a depopulating area with a nearby city. Experts say that if the situation does not change, the population of the country of 50 million could fall by half within 60 years.
Read “Zamin” on Telegram!
