Korean Famine Statistics

The following article was posted in May 2001 by the Associated Press. It reflects the enormous impact of famine on one nation. This study discloses how radically an entire society can change because of malnutrition.

Beijing, China (AP) -- Famine and economic collapse cut the life expectancy of North Koreans by more than six years during the 1990s, a senior North Korean official said Tuesday in a rare disclosure.

Death rates for infants and young children climbed while incomes fell by almost half, said a report presented by Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon to a UNICEF conference in Beijing.

North Korea rarely releases official data, but figures in the report closely mirror outside estimates. The country has depended on foreign aid to feed its people since 1995, when its agricultural system collapsed after decades of mismanagement aggravated by years of bad weather.

North Korea says 220,000 people died of famine in 1995-98. South Korean and U.S. estimates of deaths range from 270,000 to 2 million.

Mortality rate

The report didn't give specific figures for famine deaths, but said average life expectancy fell from 73.2 years in 1993 to 66.8 in 1999.

The North Korean population grew by 1.5 million people in the same period to a total of 22.6 million, the report said.

The mortality rate for children under age 5 rose during those years from 27 deaths per 1,000 to 48 per 1,000. The same figure for infants rose from 14 to 22.5 per 1,000 births, the report said. Meanwhile, North Korea's per capita gross national product slipped from $991 per year to $457.

Economic woes helped bring on a health crisis. The percentage of the population with access to safe drinking water fell from 86 percent in 1994 to just 53 percent two years later, Choe said.

Vaccination coverage for diseases such as polio and measles from 90 percent of children in 1990 to just 50 percent in 1997.

Malnutrition, dysentery, and vitamin and iodine deficiency remain serious problems among children, along with a shortfall of hospitals and schools, the report said.