North Koreans live 11 years less than South Koreans

By Lee Hyo-sik

The average life expectancy for North Koreans is 11 years less than that for South Koreans, due to poorer healthcare and nutrition among other reasons, the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHSA) said Sunday.

In a study titled “Health Disparity between the South and North,” it said the average life expectancy for North Koreans stood at 69.3 years (65.6 years for men and 72.7 years for women) in 2008. In comparison, an average South Korean was estimated to live for 80.1 years (76.5 years for men and 83.3 years for women).

“We estimated North Koreans’ life expectancy based on census data compiled by the Stalinist regime in 2008. It was found that people north of the Demilitarized Zone live about 11 years less than their southern neighbors,” said Hwang Na-mi, a research fellow at the KIHSA’s health policy research division.

Additionally, 77.2 women per 100,000 died during pregnancy or in childbirth in North Korea in 2008, up from 54 in 1993, indicating the Stalinist regime’s healthcare system continues to deteriorate.

In comparison, only 15 pregnant women per 100,000 died of complications in the South.

“But the World Bank and UNICEF said a much larger number of pregnant women in the North died. They estimated some 250 per every 100,000 died,” Hwang said. “This huge discrepancy has raised a doubts about the credibility of census data produced by the North. But we think the data at least shed some light on the deteriorating health conditions of ordinary North Koreans.”

The North’s infant mortality rate per 1,000 newborns was 19.3 in 2008, five times higher than the South’s 3.5. In 1993, only 14.1 newborns died in the communist state, KIHSA said.

Nearly 27 per 1,000 North Korean children under 5 die of diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria or other illnesses prevalent in underdeveloped countries, five times higher than South Korea’s. In the North, 344 people per 100,000 contracted tuberculosis in 2010, compared with 97 in the South.

About 31 percent of premature deaths were caused by various infectious diseases, while 5.6 percent of the deaths south of the border were attributed to flu and other epidemics.

The institute also said 95 North Koreans per 100,000 died of cancer, lower than the South’s 161. But it said the lower figure was largely due to the North’s inadequate screening of cancer. About 345 North Koreans per 100,000 died of cardiovascular diseases, twice that of the South’s 168.

leehs@koreatimes.co.kr