‘North Korea won’t need to invade’: Tesla CEO warns against South Korea’s falling birthrate

South Korea’s falling birthrate will lead to such a dire underpopulation issue that North Korea could “walk across” without having to invade, according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The warning against underpopulation came in a Jan. 7 episode of the podcast “Moonshots” (2022-) hosted by Peter Diamandis, where the two discussed the future of humanity, AI and demographic shifts.

Raising the issue of population collapse, Musk cited South Korea as a key example. “South Korea is like — yeah, one-third replacement rate. Isn’t that crazy?” he said.

He warned that if current trends continue, Korea’s population could fall to just 3 percent of its current size in three generations.

“So three generations, they’re going to be one twenty-seventh. So, 3 percent of their current size. I mean, North Korea won’t need to invade. They can just walk across,” Musk said.

The remarks are the latest in a series of warnings Musk has issued about South Korea’s demographic future. In a March 2023 interview with Fox News, Musk also pointed to South Korea as one of the most extreme cases of low birthrates, saying the country could shrink to 3 to 4 percent of its current size over three generations and that nothing will reverse this trend.

In 2022, he wrote on X that South Korea, along with Hong Kong, has the fastest population collapse in the world.

During the “Moonshots” episode, Musk also reflected on aging societies, pointing out a striking demographic milestone. “Adult diapers are real. It’s like one of the signs that a country — it’s not on the right path. It’s when the adult diapers exceed the baby diapers,” he said.

“South Korea will be there,” the host remarked.

“No, they passed that point,” Musk replied. “Many years ago.”

BY YOON SO-YEON, JEONG HYE-JEONG [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]