Elon Musk, the Tesla chief executive officer (CEO), again cited Korea as the most serious example of the global "population cliff" problem.

Elon Musk, head of the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), appears on Fox News on the 29th (local time) to actively promote his work. /Courtesy of Fox TV broadcast screen capture

According to episode 220 of entrepreneur Peter Diamandis' podcast "Moonshots" on the 8th (local time), Musk recently discussed the future of humanity in a conversation.

Talking about population and life extension, he noted, "One sign that a country is not on the right track is when adult diapers outnumber baby diapers."

He added, "Korea passed that point years ago."

He also said, "Looking at Korea's replacement rate, the population will shrink to one-twenty-seventh after three generations, about 3% of its current size," adding, "North Korea wouldn't even need to invade. They could just walk across."

The replacement rate refers to the total fertility rate needed to maintain the current population size. It is generally considered stable for population maintenance at about 2.1. As of last year, Korea's total fertility rate was 0.75.

Musk has previously identified population decline as one of the major crises facing humanity and has repeatedly mentioned Korea as a representative case.

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