Miracle of Seoul Birth Rate rebound "There was a reason for everything."

-Queen Munjeong, who recognized the talent of "Janggeum" 20 years ago, will run again for "Seoul Women."

YTN Radio (FM 94.5) [YTN News FM Wise Radio Life]

□ Broadcast date and time: January 10, 2025 (Fri)
□ Host: Announcer Park Gui-bin
□ Castor: Park Jung-sook, CEO of the Seoul Women's Family Foundation

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.

◆ Announcer Park Gui-bin (hereinafter referred to as Park Gui-bin): It's time for an invitation to the wise radio life issue. Today's guests are from the Seoul Women's Family Foundation, which is leading women's family policies such as gender equality and low birth rate in Seoul, the capital of Korea. CEO Park Jung-sook came out. Welcome, CEO.

◇ Park Jung-sook, CEO of the Seoul Women's Family Foundation (hereinafter referred to as Park Jung-sook): Hello.

◆ Park Gwi-bin: There's a camera in front of us, so please say hello first.

◇ Park Jung-sook: Is that the camera? Hello, everyone. We're getting information every day through our wise radio show. It's nice to see you like this today. I'm Park Jung Sook. I work as the CEO of the Seoul Women's Family Foundation.

◆ Park Gui Bin: Yes, nice to meet you. CEO. You looked so cool wearing glasses. Why did you take off your glasses and say hello?

◇ Park Jung-sook: This is a magnifying glass.

◆ Park Gwibin: No, it's good. It's nice to see the director's eyes wide. The listeners are here as the representative of the Seoul Women's Family Foundation, and I'm sure our listeners are very familiar and welcome to the viewers. It's been a while since you came here.

◇ Park Jung-sook: Yes, it's been 10 years.

◆ Park Gwibin: As far as I know from the radio, I remember it was at this time of year. You hosted a program called "Your Prime Today". How does it feel to be here after a long time?

◇ Park Jung-sook: It's the same as ever, but it's a little bit more stable than it was 10 years ago. And how should I say this? It's a warm heart that feels like I'm back home, so I met you comfortably today.

◆ Park Gui Bin: Yes. I was so glad to say hello. Of course, I already knew our CEO Park Jung-sook, and I was an announcer here at the time, and she's been active since a long time ago. You acted actively in various ways, right? You played the role of a lieutenant. But there was a time when he said hello to me so warmly that I still remember him vividly and said that he was listening to my broadcast well. So I was so thankful. At that time, I was on a program called News Music, and he just greeted me in the hallway saying that he always listens to it every weekend. First of all, I was so thankful.

◇ Park Jung-sook: Yes, you are still beautiful. Thank you so much. Thank you for doing a great job on the show. Please lead us well.

◆ Park Gwi-bin: I'll try to do as much as you did 10 years ago. You are currently working as a representative at the Seoul Women's Family Foundation. What role does this play specifically?

◇ Park Jung-sook: The Seoul Metropolitan Government's gender equality, low birth rate, and various programs for children, such as Always Spring Plus, or digital sex crimes are so rampant these days that our children are targeted and perpetrators. In short, education on this part is an institution that oversees all women's family policies that the Seoul Metropolitan Government is doing.

◆ Park Gui-bin: I think you can understand that it is an institution that first looks at women and children's families. If so, one of the policies for women's families that many people are interested in now is the low birth rate issue. You must be interested in that issue, but of course, recently I saw that there was news that the birth rate in Seoul has risen.

◇ [Park Jung-sook] That's right. In 23, Seoul hit 0.55%, or the lowest point. So over the past 23 years, 24 years ago, I implemented various policies and implemented policies in more customized detail by mobilizing all the financial resources, policy directions, and networks that the entire city can mobilize, but the policy has risen quite a lot. It rose to 0.58% in the second half of the year and 0.76% overall. Still, the Seoul Metropolitan Government is still on the rise, so it is very encouraging that it has gone down, stopped, and climbed again, but there is still a very long way to go.

◆ Park Gui-bin: The key reason for the rebound in the birth rate is that the Seoul Metropolitan Government has also implemented a lot of support policies, right?

◇ Park Jung-sook: Yes, there's that, and I think there's a policy of giving birth to a child, so I don't think about it like that. So if you've had children at home, raised them, and guaranteed their safety, now you're going to take care of them in the public sector, and the housing problem was the biggest factor in this low birth rate. The Seoul Metropolitan Government is implementing a policy that allows our newlyweds to live longer if their children are born in the long term for 10 or 20 years because it is their home in advance. As a result, housing is stabilized, various parental leave can be used, and there are various forms of caregivers. When parents raise their children, they also support them, and there is a gap in caring, because those times are free when you leave the daycare center before you go to another daycare center or when you wait for your mother to return. At that time, mothers called and eagerly put up with people, but I think the burden of raising our children has been reduced by providing such a detailed service to take care of them through a gap. As a result, I think that's a little encouraging because the perception that I can give birth little by little has improved.

◆ Park Gui-bin: You pursued the policy very delicately, didn't you?

◇ Park Jung-sook: For example, a set of three customized childbirths and rearing. Because our children grow up not only for a short time, but also for infants and toddlers, and then when they go to school, there are cases where mothers quit because they are having a hard time.

◆ Park Gui-bin: It's usually a career break.

◇ Park Jung-sook: So, for example, when a child is born, a career break is serious, and then when a child enters school and then becomes a sixth grader, mothers think that they should give up their career and not have any more children when they come home. So we're even working to create jobs for our women and help them get jobs again.

◆ Park Gui-bin: There are various childcare-related, childbirth-related, and care programs. In the case of the previously mentioned home business, the real housing problem is the most important thing, and I recruited it for the third time, and the competition rate was 38.2 to 1 this time, so you're very responsive right now, and many other care programs. What are the parents' reactions?

◇ Park Jung-sook: The most popular thing for parents these days is the Seoul-type child care service. For example, there are cases where my parents take my grandparents' four children for granted, and for example, we provide support to those who are in public care, but for our seniors who are looking at their biological children and grandchildren, there was no support at all. But we also support them, and our biggest problem is that when we are with grandmothers and grandfathers, there is a generational gap, so it's not fun. There are kids who talk like this. So, they educate them on how to take care of this child and send them play contents, so they hold seminars, and they come to our foundation to learn play contents like this. When they play board games or fun origami, the children are fun to play. At the same time, if you receive a little subsidy, the mothers and fathers who feel sorry for leaving their children behind will feel a little more comfortable. And my parents also have a job. As a result, there are cases where they raise children proudly together, and in that case, it is very rewarding. And another thing is the problem of our small business owners. In the case of large companies, the system is well established so that small and medium-sized companies can take parental leave or husbands can take parental leave, but small business owners often go out and work because the labor cost is high these days. That's why I have a baby. Then, it's very difficult to maintain a pregnancy. That's why I'm delaying giving birth to a baby.

◆ Park Gui-bin: It's been a difficult situation from the beginning.

◇ Park Jung-sook: Yes, so we provide those people with rent, utility bills, and fixed costs that can occur during the shutdown due to pregnancy and childbirth. And alternative workers when they become parental leave. When a mother goes to give birth to a child or when it's urgent to take care of the child, we send an alternative worker. As a result, there were some small business owners who said that giving birth to a child is really an exaggerated idea. So, if so, we implemented this policy thinking that we should support it by leading it to public care, and it is very popular.

◆ Park Gui Bin: I think so. However, in order to apply from any government or local government, it would be great if it was possible for everyone, but of course, we can't do it all due to limited financial resources, so do you have to apply for those things yourself?

◇ [Park Jung-sook] Yes, that's right. If I explain in detail, the private childcare service will provide a total of 3.6 million won for six months, up to 600,000 won per child per month and 900,000 won for two children, and about 800 minutes will be selected in 24 years and additional recruitment will be made in 25 years. If you support our Women's Family Foundation at that time, we will kindly guide you.

◆ Park Gui-bin: If you go to the website of the Seoul Women's Family Foundation, you can see the details of the contents. [FAN ID] said, "It's been a while, Jungsuk." I went to Hwagok Church together a long time ago. It's nice to hear your voice. ’ That's what they said.

◇ Park Jung-sook: Yes. I think we're completely the same class as elementary school, but it's such a long time ago.

◆ Park Gwibin: You must have heard it. It's so nice to see you. The listener said, "Why aren't we coming out?" Are you actor Park Jung-sook of Daejanggeum? You must be a wonderful female leader. ’ That's what she said.

◇ Park Jung-sook: Thank you. It's already 2004, so it's been more than 20 years. Sometimes, when I keep searching for my name, there are times when AI finds it and posts it to me on YouTube. Then, I was so surprised that it was like this a long time ago. But when I saw it at that time, most of the performers in Daejanggeum were women. And a woman being a doctor, having the admonition forces against it, I defeated them all and appointed them as Dae Jang Geum.

◆ Park Gwi-bin: You were a heavy drinker during the Joseon Dynasty, but you are doing the same thing in 2024 and 2025 in Korea as the CEO of the Seoul Women's Family Foundation.

◇ Park Jung-sook: I know. So I thought that this was a drama that really supported women, so I thought that there was a relationship.

◆ [Voiceover] Right. And looking at it, I talked about my career break earlier. There is also a women's up policy to support mothers' economic activities?

◇ Park Jung-sook: Yes, Women's Up is a set of three types: job search support, internship, and fixed incentives. It's a three-piece set of women's up, so if you want to come back to have a job, everything changes to the fourth industry as the Corona pandemic passes. As a result, women who are not familiar with ICT are majoring in engineering? That's what they thought. So I thought I shouldn't do that. We support you, we educate you, we bring those senior women who are already working in that field to mentoring you, and we go around looking for a job. If you look at it, you have to buy books, take lectures, and buy clothes somewhere. In that case, you need something like a job search support fund, but there are not many such job search support funds, but we are still providing the necessary expenses so that you can train and get a certificate for three months, 300,000 won each. Then, after the application period ends, for example, you have to use your resume. So, if you write a resume well and ask which company you want to go to customized, we will organize your career to suit the company and help you when you make a resume and go looking for a job. And we recruit companies to get help and work as internships. That's why I'm sending it to the company. So, six months have passed since the end of that period, and if this person is so good, he will really hire you. Then we'll also give you a congratulatory money. So, a total of about 3 million won is given to each person to help us find a new job during that period. I couldn't work for a year or two while raising my child, so of course, I was a university professor at school, but it's hard to work every day. So I was very intimidated. So, just by having a mentor come and tell me that you can do it, I'm very motivated and if I'm confident that I can go out and become an influential person in this society, everyone can do it, but they shrink back home. Therefore, if we focus only on children, I wonder if our heavy interest in private education or such children is a good direction. So I'm working hard in this business because I think that even if mothers don't necessarily get paid, they do internships and let them know how the job market is changing.

◆ Park Gui-bin: Yes, time has gone by while talking to the CEO, and the foundation is also providing support for crime victims targeting women, so I want to take a closer look at this, so you should come next time if you have time, right?

◇ Park Jung-sook: Please call me often. That's right because there are so many digital sex crimes. There will be cases where you become the subject without your knowledge with deepfakes. We're getting rid of those contents.

◆ Park Gui-bin: Park Jung-sook, CEO of the Seoul Women's Family Foundation, is here for about 30 seconds. Please say one last word.

◇ Park Jung-sook: Yes, our Seoul women's family is about to play as smart women for this era. Please join us in the "Let's Run Seoul Women Again" Smart Women Project.

◆ Park Gwibin: Thank you. So far, I was Park Jung-sook, CEO of the Seoul Women's Family Foundation. Thank you for your words today.

◇ Park Jung-sook: Thank you.