North Korea is operating a new type of senior welfare facility centered on the Pyongyang new town area to address low birthrates and rapid aging. Although packaged as a policy to strengthen social welfare and soothe public sentiment, the actual benefits appear to go only to a very small segment.
According to the organ of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, Choson Sinbo, on the 9th, "Hwasong 4 Senior Health Center" recently opened in the third-stage district of the Hwasong area on the outskirts of Pyongyang. It is a follow-up facility after the appearance of "Hwasong 1 Senior Health Center" and "Hwasong 2 Senior Health Center."
The center is a comprehensive welfare facility that combines health care and leisure activities for seniors, with a sauna, barbershop, beauty salon, skin care room, game room, and therapeutic exercise room inside. Choson Sinbo introduced it as "a welfare facility that provides various conveniences for seniors, including health care, sports, recreational activities, and hair and beauty services."
This move by North Korea is interpreted as a measure to respond to the rapidly increasing elderly population.
Under United Nations standards, a society is classified as "aging" when those 65 and older make up 7% of the total population, "aged" at 14% or more, and "super-aged" at 20% or more.
According to "2024 Major Statistical Indicators of North Korea," which Statistics Korea released last year, those 65 and older accounted for 11.1% of North Korea's total population of 25.78 million in 2023, meaning it has already entered the aging-society stage. The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) projected that the share will rise to 21.8% by 2050.
Amid this trend, North Korea established the Joseon Association for the Support of the Elderly in 2003 and enacted the Elderly Protection Act in 2007 to institutionalize its senior welfare system. On Sept. 9, it also held a commemorative event at the Daedong River Diplomatic Corps Club ahead of World Senior Citizens Day (Oct. 1) to discuss related policies.
In an article in October last year, Choson Sinbo reported, "In North Korea, as the living environment of the elderly improves by the day and the ranks of the long-lived increase, measures are being taken to protect the long-lived and widely share longevity experiences, and those aged 90 or older are provided with separately designated social benefits."
However, these welfare facilities are interpreted as closer to a Pyongyang-centered "propaganda project" than a program for the entire population. All the senior health centers disclosed so far are located only in Pyongyang's new town, and no similar facilities have been identified in the provinces.
North Korea went through the "Arduous March" in the 1990s, during which the family-based support system collapsed, and as a result, the traditional culture of respecting the elderly is also known to have weakened. Accordingly, the North Korean authorities' emphasis on welfare for the elderly is seen as a move aimed at both internal cohesion and improving its international image.