Despite a slew of costly government measures aimed at turning the situation around, South Korea continues to struggle with a chronically-low birthrate.
In fact, the nation's birthrate hit a record low in 2017.
So far, this year it's more of the same.
Ko Roon-hee has more.
Despite the government's efforts to tackle the country's low birth rate, the number of newborns in Korea last year hit a record low.
According to Statistics Korea on Wednesday, around 358-thousand babies were born in 2017...which is down 11-point- 9 percent from the previous year.
This is the lowest since related figures were first compiled in 1970.

The total fertility rate, or the average number of babies a woman is predicted to have in her lifetime, dropped to 1-point-zero-five last year…also marking another record low.
This figure is down from 1-point-17 the year before.

Based on the 2016 data, South Korea's total fertility rate was the lowest out of 36 OECD member countries.
The average birthrate of OECD countries stood at 1-point-68 in 2016.

And the latest figures show the problem is grim for this year too.
There were just 26-thousand 4-hundred births in June… which is down 15-hundred from the previous month.
In the first six months of the year, the number of births fell by almost 9-percent on year to record its lowest figures since 1981.
Meanwhile,... the South Korean government announced last month it would allocate an extra 800-million U.S. dollars of next year's budget to tackle this chronic problem.
The government has been encouraging families to have more babies by offering incentives, including cash rewards… but nothing has stopped the decline.
Ko Roon-hee, Arirang News.