Key facts
- South Korea's population aged 65 and older exceeds 21 percent, classifying it as a 'super aged society'.
- President Lee Jae Myung called for redesigning labor, welfare, employment, housing, and childcare sectors.
- He identified AI-induced innovation as an opportunity to restructure employment, education, and care sectors.
- The president emphasized creating a country where all people can enjoy happy lives throughout their life cycles.
SEOUL, Oct. 14 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Jae Myung on Wednesday called for restructuring South Korea's social system to reflect rapid changes in demographics, stressing the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) provides an opportunity to redesign the industrial, employment, education and other sectors.
The president made the call during a meeting of the presidential committee on population strategy, attended by government ministers and dozens of citizens and aimed at helping design the country's population policies.
South Korea has been grappling with a fast aging population, with people aged 65 and older already accounting for more than 21 percent of the total population, making the country a "super aged society," where over 20 percent of its population are aged 65 years or more.
Lee called for policies to facilitate "qualitative," as well as "quantitative," population growth, saying the country needs "a major turnaround" in its population policies.