President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks during a meeting of the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy on the demographic crisis in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Wednesday. Yonhap

The Yoon Suk Yeol administration's recently announced set of countermeasures against the plummeting birthrate is facing cynical and skeptical responses from citizens. They said the plans, which include expansion of maternity and paternity leaves and afterschool child care programs, are only fragmentary solutions that cannot fundamentally solve the underlying cause of the demographic crisis.

Critics cited chronic problems of long working hours and high living costs in the country as the key causes of the problem, calling on policymakers to have a clearer perspective and come up with more substantial and effective countermeasures for the long term.

A woman surnamed Jeon, an office worker living in Seoul's Dongjak District and a mother of a 2-year-old boy, said child-rearing has been a challenge, as it is physically impossible for a dual-income couple to spend time with their kid in Korea.

She and her husband have a maximum of an hour or two to spend together with their son during weekdays after work, which makes it impossible to have an emotional connection with him.

"It is unimaginable to have a second child in this country," she said.

"It's even questionable whether the expansion of afterschool child care programs is a low birthrate policy, because the government seems to be telling parents to work more instead of raising their children. The fundamental solution is to shorten working hours, but the government seems to prefer opening more child care facilities while the working hours remain long."

Korea has the world's lowest total fertility rate at 0.65, which means the average number of children a woman will have in her lifetime is well below the replacement rate. Seoul's birthrate has sunk to 0.55. If this trend continues, the nation's population is projected to halve by 2100.

Regarding this, the government declared a "national demographic emergency" on Wednesday, announcing the countermeasures, which also included easing standards for income from special loans for households with newborns.

President Yoon said at the time that the country will "operate a pan-national task force to overcome the low birthrate issues," speaking of the ancient Spartan empire which he said went extinct after a demographic crisis.

Officials are seen at the Presidential Committee on Ageing Society and Population Policy within the Government Complex Seoul, May 10. Yonhap

However, many view that the announcement was nothing new and only a repetition of existing policies.

Another Seoul-based office worker surnamed Lee, 32, said, "Not many young women in their 20s and 30s want to get married and have children" out of concerns over the high cost of living and career interruption.

"No matter how hard we work, we will never make enough to afford to own a home. It's completely unreasonable to spend all that money to get married and have a child then have my career ruined, but the government doesn't seem to care about that," she said.

A 35-year-old Seoul resident surnamed Jeong, who has been married for over two years, also said she does not see herself having a child in Korea in this lifetime as childbirth seems like it will put her into "the start of an endless economic vicious cycle."

"It's difficult to afford living as a three-person household as a single-income family in Seoul," she said, explaining that she and her husband chose to keep living a child-free life in the capital where there are better job opportunities, despite expensive housing costs.

Others questioned the sincerity of the Yoon government over the issue, as it has been pushing to abolish the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

"The government plans to abolish the gender equality ministry and neglects the important roles it plays in family and women's issues, an online commenter wrote. "It seems ridiculous that the government would attempt to deal with the demographic crisis without it."