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The South Korean government is urging its citizens to indulge in more sex in order to make more babies.
The country is facing an ageing populations and has one of the world’s lowest birth rates.
As part of “emergency measures” to encourage its people to start families, the Asian country is offering financial support for couples seeking fertility treatment and extra paternity leave for parents welcoming a second child.
The Korea Herald reports that the measure were announced by the ministry of health and welfare following a 5.3 per cent drop in new born babies in the first five months of the year compared to the same time in 2015.
Health minister Chung Chin-youb was quoted as saying:
The government prepared such emergency measures with a desperate mind that we must exert all possible efforts to block the current low birth rate that continues to decline
But these still fall short of transforming the sense of defeat felt by youths into a sense of hope, or to console the working mums who shed tears during our policy debate.
The government will spend up to £44million on the new measures, according to the Korea Times, although there are fears that state policy will not be able to overpower a corporate culture seen as “family-unfriendly”.