Seoul, Dec 4 (IANS): North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for measures to prevent a decrease in the country's birth rate in the first national meeting of mothers in 11 years, state media reported on Monday.

According to the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim said he has thought about North Korean mothers whenever he faced difficulties in steering state and party affairs, and stressed the role of mothers in such various fields as helping resolve "non-social" problems and promoting the unity of society, reports Yonhap News Agency.

"There are also issues of preventing the birth rate from falling and well nurturing children," he said at the fifth National Meeting of Mothers that opened on Sunday in Pyongyang.

North Korea's total fertility rate -- the number of children that are expected to be born to a women over her lifetime -- came to 1.8 in 2023, according to data posted on the website of the UN Population Fund.

North Korea last held a national meeting of mothers in 2012.

The inaugural gathering took place in November 1961.