The Socialist Patriotic Youth League (SPYL) has begun interviews of unmarried youth to determine why they have yet to tie the knot amid a recent uptick in the number of young North Koreans avoiding marriage. Young people have reacted poorly to this, complaining that the “state is encouraging them to get married while doing nothing to resolve their financial troubles.”
“The head of the SPYL committee at a textile factory in Hwadae county individually met with unmarried young people on Jan. 16 and asked why they hadn’t married and whether they had faced difficulties in getting married,” a Daily NK source in North Hamgyong province said recently. “I understand that with the recent continuous rise in the number of unmarried people, higher-ups ordered that the SPYL study why young people weren’t getting married.”
Many young North Koreans nowadays remain unmarried even as they approach 40. Economic troubles are the biggest reason for this. Couples cannot buy a home or even live on their current incomes.
“In the past, people thought it was a problem if you remained unmarried past 30, but now people think it’s natural to marry after 30,” the source said. “Some young people can’t even think of marriage because they’re poor, while others delay getting married because, while living on their own is OK, marriage could prove a burden, making their lives more difficult.”
Housing crisis and pressure to have children
According to the source, one young Hwadae county resident in their late 30s who has a lover but has delayed marriage said they “couldn’t even talk of getting married because they wouldn’t be able to buy a home even if their whole families worked for several years.” They said that young people “would rush to get married if only the housing issue were resolved.”
Another reason young people are avoiding marriage is the deeply rooted belief that married couples must have children.
“People say that if older people are going to get married and not have children, it would be better not to get married in the first place,” the source said. “Because of this social atmosphere and pressure, young people delay marriage because of the burden.”
Against this background, the young people at the textile factory in Hwadae county have responded coldly to the SPYL committee chairman’s one-on-one interviews, complaining that the state simply urges them to get married while showing no interest in their economic troubles.
Young people complained that simply interviewing them “won’t make a home or food appear,” and that pressuring them to get married in the current circumstance “was telling them to starve to death.” They also complained that “marriage is a luxury when economic troubles remain unsolved” and that nobody would oppose getting married if the state “at least provided homes.”
“SPYL officials wanted to encourage young people to get married with their interviews, but in the end, they simply confirmed that young people have to delay marriage due to economic troubles,” the source said. “The shared belief was that it was too much to expect people to get married and have children unless the economy improves.”
January 29, 2026 at 06:30PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)