U.S. Army Paratroopers from 1st Battalion, 143rd Infantry Regiment (Texas Army National Guard)
Not these.
Posted on 08/16/2025 2:06:12 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
The writing has been on the wall for a long time: South Korea’s birth rate has dropped throughout much of the past decade, spelling trouble for the military as regional threats and global conflicts simmer.
Now, a new report has found that the number of South Korean troops declined by 20% in the past six years, in large part because of the dwindling pool of young men – reflecting the shrinking workforce and swelling elderly population in one of the world’s most rapidly aging countries.
The Defense Ministry report attributed the drop to “complex factors” including population decline and fewer men wanting to become officers due to “soldier treatment.” The report didn’t elaborate on that treatment but studies and surveys have previously highlighted the military’s notoriously harsh conditions.
As of July, the military had 450,000 troops, it said – down from 563,000 in 2019.
“If the number of standing army (members) continues to decline, there can be difficulties in securing elite manpower and limits in operating equipment,” warned the report, shared last week by lawmaker Choo Mi-ae.
The news comes at a bad time for South Korea, a key Western ally which hosts huge numbers of US troops and has a mutual defense treaty with Washington.
Just across the border, neighboring North Korea has sent tens of thousands of soldiers to fight for Russia along the front lines with Ukraine – raising fears that Moscow may share advanced military technology with Pyongyang in exchange, violating international sanctions.
Meanwhile, North Korea’s ruling Kim family has continued blasting hostile rhetoric, threatening to destroy South Korea with nuclear weapons if attacked and warning that Seoul remains “the enemy.”
However, experts say, that doesn’t necessarily mean North Korea’s military is better off.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Answer to headline is obviously it is bad.
Women have to have chilren, we’re devaluing family and mothers and fathers so terrible around the world.
Labor and personal rights. How terrible the cost of this will be.
Civilizations end when women refuse to have children.
They'll end up getting replaced by a different civilization.
Yes it is a problem, if they want to be free then they better copy some of the Swiss model to supplement their active duty, and weapon capabilities.
N. Korea’s population is also shrinking.
Ukraine should have followed that model. It would have provided deterrence so the war may not have happened at all.
The U.S. is the only country in the world with the second amendment.
North Korea has been sending military aged males to Ukraine to get butchered.
"North and South Korea have adopted different approaches to confronting their falling birth rates and looming population decline."North Korea's fertility rate, or the number of babies expected per woman's lifetime, stands at 1.78 births per woman, according to projections by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). South Korea's stands at 0.72, the lowest in the world."
more....
How North Korea's Declining Birth Rate Compares with South Newsweek, 18 September 2024
I wasn’t talking about personal gun ownership, I was talking about an organized and trained civilian/soldier population and an infrastructure and building permit system that includes fighting and surviving an invasion.
1.78 vs 0.72.
By 2050, North Korea's population will be 22 million vs 18 million for South Korea.
Kim Jong Un's successor will be able to conquer South Korea.
U.S. Army Paratroopers from 1st Battalion, 143rd Infantry Regiment (Texas Army National Guard)
Not these.
North Korea’s military is primarily a slave labor force for senior officers. It has little, if any, military capability. South Korea’s armed forces are capable.
It might be too late for S.Korea. It is next to impossible to recover from a 0.7 fertility rate. Especially considering no country has ever done it.
I believe only Israel has a rate higher than the 2.1 replacement rate (due to their conservative Jews doing their part). The rest of Western Europe and Asia are below that.
Even the US is at 1.6, which is far lower than most people know. Immigration and longer lifespans have hidden the problem, but give it a decade or two and it will become VERY obvious. Thats the interesting thing though - it is just an insidiously hidden problem that people almost never catch its a problem until it’s too late. Until there’s precious little to be done.
Russia has been struggling for a while with a 1.4 birth rate. I believe there was a time in the late 90s where abortion was a form of ‘birth control.’ Insane.
Other countries, like Italy (1.2) Greece (1.3) and Japan (1.2) are way worse off. There are towns in Japan where there have been no births in two decades, or where the 60-year old mayor is among the youngest people.
Then the likes of Spain (1.1), Ukraine (0.98), S.Korea (0.7), and China (1.0), are (technically) already doomed.
Take Ukraine …I know it’s a politically sensitive topic, but FR used to be about speaking of things as they are. It is at DU where people care about opinions (although FR has changed a lot recently). Anyway, take Ukraine …they lost the war 20-25 years ago, unfortunately. Without other countries sending soldiers, it is only a matter of time.
Some day an updated Freakonomics book will probably include a chapter on the Russia-Ukraine war, and how demographic trends from two decades back precipitated hard decisions twenty years later. Similar to how they showed Nicolae Ceausescu, the former dictator of Romania, boosting birth rates in the 60s (successfully) with the children growing up in a bad state and resulting in his killing in 1989.
There might also be a chapter on how South Korea invested billions in creating one of the most advanced conventional militaries in the world. One where they had some of the most capable AEGIS Destroyers in the world (as good as an Arleigh Burke), operated some of the best diesel electric submarines, had the most advanced F-15 variants in the world, etc etc etc. BUT …where they never invested in the future life blood of their country, CHILDREN.
It is insane to me how the West missed the trap. Maybe it is rising incomes resulting in fewer children (ironic how those most able to afford children have the fewest, and those least able to afford them have the most). Maybe it is the lie of the ‘population bomb’ that was a common fear in the 60s,70s, and early 80s.
Not sure what caused it really, but it is easily the biggest danger to the West. A danger that is very real, very present, and almost totally ignored.
Until it is too late.
I bet you it will be until 2035 before the US (at large) realizes there’s a problem, and by then it will be too late.
How the problem was so well hidden is almost …devilish…
Anyways, back to regularly scheduled programming. I am sure the UK is banning the internet, or some Australian kangaroo jumped over a wallaby, or the price of eggs in Dallas is higher than in Tulsa. Such stuff.
It will be another 10 years before people start looking at the REAL menace facing the country.
We were getting by until now. But it's starting to become obvious.
It's complicated but basically if you're in the middle class in USA, you have the lowest birth rate.
Meanwhile, Obama moved the US Census Bureau into his White House so it could forever manipulate surveys and numbers to benefit the democrats. But let’s not pay attention to that.
Drones, unmanned aircraft, unmanned vehicles are the wars of the future.
Ability to have superior drones, and more of them, and quick resupply is key.
Traditional will still exist..but be secondary.
I agree. Drones and AI will win wars. But robots and AI will replace people on the home front as well, generating wealth and providing goods for people. That is Elon Musk's message, one that has been discussed in numerous sci-fi novels for the last century. Japan is well along this path, with a declining workforce but investments in robots. Japan doesn't seem so concerned about lack of babies. Hope it works out well for them, also Korea.
SK has a vile western feminist movement running through the country.
They call it “Hell Korea” for a reason.
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