In the short term, South Korea’s national pension finds itself in a favorable position. The country boasts low debt, high savings rates, a highly educated workforce and some of the region’s most advanced technology firms, and the pension system has managed to run a surplus for years.

But looking not far into the future, it’s evident that looming demographic challenges due to the country’s world-lowest birth and fertility rates pose serious problems for the sustainability of the National Pension Fund (NPS), which is at the center of retirement planning for tens of millions of South Koreans.