Detail

`The area of our national territory, 98,824㎢, ranks 105th among all the nations of the world, whereas the population of our country ranks 21st as of the end of 1978, standing at 37,019,000 with population density as high as 9th. Every hour approximately 70 persons are added to the population of Korea, or 1,600 per day, 50,000 or about the size of Pyeongtaek Eup (township) per month, and about 600,000 people or the size of Gwangju City a year. Such a 3,000,000 equivalent to the population of Chungcheong­namdo Province, every five years. Thus, the population density of our country continues to get worse because of such a geometrical-progression increase, whereas the area of land remains all the same. According to a statistical survey, it costs 4,360,000 won ? one U.S.dollar is equal to about 500 won ? to give a son or daughter a proper education up college. When the expense for bringing up is added there to, a total of 12,740,000 won is needed per capita for rasing and education. In other words, 50,000 won per month has to be spet per person for a period of 26 long years. Having too many children is bound to make the houshold living difficult as expenditures for education increase accordingly. Giving excessive births also may be detrimental to the health of the mother and child, at the same time. Therefore, it is for the benifit of every family and children and for the wellbeing of the nation as a whole ``to stop at two, regardless of son or daughter`` and raise them well. The government of the Republic of Korea has exerted itself, since 1961, to promote family planing at the cost of almost 20 billion won. As a result, the population-increase rate dropped down to 1.7 percent as of the end of 1976 as compared with 3 percent for 1960. This is still high, however, when compared with the 1.0 percent prevalent among the advanced countries of the world. To our relief, the government has been implementing voluntary sterilization services, widly recognized as the best method of family planing, on a large scale. As many as 240,000 men and women underwent sterilization operation in 1978 alone, successfully establishing a model case of sterilization program worthy of a worldwide acclaim. As a result, Korea has been designated as the wenue for the Fourth International Conference on Voluntary Sterilization. Some 500 renowned professionals and experts from more than 80 countries are expected to attend the five­day conference to be held in Seoulform the 7th of May 1979. The Ministry of Communications, which issued a definitive postage stamp for family planing or May 1 lastyear, issues another definitive stamp on this occasion in order to emphasize the necessity and importance of familyplanning to all the people and have them cooperate fully with the government in a nationwide effort for birth control. For the first time in Korea, a chromatic, geometrical and dimensional features of a green­color frame, 1㎜ in width, is printed along the border of this stamp in order to mechanize the mail service system, through the employment of the stamp detection systm, to cope with the rapidly increasing volume of mail matters.`