N. Korea data shows slight children’s health gains: UN

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GENEVA, June 20, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – New data from North Korea show a
“slight” improvement in children’s health in the isolated nation, the UN said
Wednesday, but warned that massive challenges persist.

The findings, published by the United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF),
are based on surveys conducted by the North Korean government’s Central
Bureau of Statistics.

The data showed that the national rate of stunting, a key indicator of
malnutrition among children, dropped from 32.4 percent in 2009 — the last
time the surveys were conducted — to 19 percent last year.

But the figures on stunting varied significantly across the country.

In the capital Pyongyang, 10 percent of children were affected by
stunting, while in the rural Ryanggang province the rate was 32 percent.

Separately, the data also indicated that a full third of North Korea’s
drinking water is contaminated, posing another major threat to healthy growth
among children.

UNICEF said it needed more time to study the government data to better
understand the situation in different regions of the country.

But it added that the new data “should allow the government and
international aid agencies to more accurately and effectively target life-
saving assistance.”

The findings were released more than a week after a historic nuclear
summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump.

At the talks, Trump dangled the prospect of foreign investment in
impoverished North Korea, raising the hope that the US could help ease
crippling poverty in the country.

A United Nations-led report in March last year said chronic food shortages
and malnutrition in North Korea were widespread.

Around 41 percent of the population — or some 10.5 million people — were
undernourished, it said.

Around 18 million North Koreans, or 70 percent of the population including
1.3 million children aged under five, depend on the government-run Public
Distribution System for rations of cereal and potatoes.

But most people do not consume a sufficiently diverse diet for healthy
development, the report said.