The birth of triplets and quadruplets is a synonym for happiness and blessings in the DPRK.

At least 380 babies were born at the hospital in the first week of January.

Planes are mobilized to bring women pregnant with triplets to hospitals and after birth, the babies are presented with gold rings and silver-decorated knives and placed under the care of the state.

On the contrary, an increasing number of married women do not want to give birth to babies in Japan.

What is worse, some of the children are maltreated by their parents in the country.

Last year, a Japanese newspaper reported that a two-year-old boy was thrown into a refuse bin and choked to death by his father in Tokyo and a two-year-old girl was scalded in legs by her mother.

According to a recent survey, more than 40,000 abuses against children are reported in Japan a year.