N. Korea's infant death rate eight times the South's
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North Korea’s infant mortality rate is eight times that of South Korea’s. / Korea Times file
By Lee Jin-a
North Korea's mortality rates for infants and mothers are much higher than those in South Korea, according to the U.S.-based Voice of America (VOA).
Quoting data from the Population Reference Bureau, VOA said Thursday that 24 North Korean infants out of 1000 die, as of 2015, compared with three in South Korea. The rate is the highest among East Asian countries.
And 82 mothers lost their lives per 100,000 births in the state -- eight times higher than in the South.
The survey also found that the North's life expectancy is estimated at 66 for men and 74 for women, compared with 79 for men and 86 for women in South Korea. The life expectancy gap between the two countries was five years in 1993.
“The fact that the life expectancy gap is wider now than 1993 reflects the major setbacks in health and nutrition that North Korea is experiencing since the early 1990s because of a series of famines,” Toshiko Kaneda, a senior research associate at the bureau, told the VOA.