N. Korea's first census in 15 years going smoothly: UNFPA

By Shim Sun-ah
SEOUL, Oct. 27 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's first census in 15 years is going smoothly thanks to the "favorable" participation of citizens and the commitment of the local authorities, a U.N. agency assisting in the census said Monday.

The North conducted necessary field work from Oct. 1 to Oct. 15 and is now
reviewing questionnaires collected from the field to check if they are complete
and consistent, Omar Gharzeddine, a spokesman for the United Nations Population
Fund (UNFPA), said in an e-mail interview with Yonhap News Agency.
"The participation of the people and the commitment of the local authorities to
the census were very favorable in DPRK, compared to that in some other
countries," Gharzeddine said, using the acronymn for the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea, the official name of North Korea.
"In the DPRK case, for example, members of the international observation mission
noticed a high commitment by the national institutions involved in the census at
all levels," he said.
The survey involved more than 35,000 national enumerators and 7,500 team
supervisors, according to the agency. Around a dozen international personnel,
including UNFPA staff members and independent demographers, participated in the
observation of the census.
"I stayed in Pyongyang for five days, two of which I spent visiting households
and observing census takers during their interviews," Gharzeddine said.
The international observers visited all of the country's provinces, and covered
56 counties and districts through the duration of the census.
They noticed "a level of devotion, commitment and discipline of the enumerators
and their supervisors, as well as the full participation of the respondents,"
including their hospitality, the spokesman said.
"People met by the observers appeared to have been informed in advance about the
census."
North Koreans had received messages about the census on TV, radio and newspapers,
as well through posters that were distributed around the country, he said.
One of the messages said offering cooperation and support to the census was
everyone's patriotic duty, he added. "This obviously helped ensure smooth
cooperation among census takers, local authorities and the general public."
The last census taken in North Korea was in 1993, also with the help of the
UNFPA, in which the country's population was measured as 21.21 million people as
of that year.
U.S. and other intelligence communities believe some 2 million North Koreans died
of hunger in the late 1990s when the impoverished country was hit by national
disasters and years of economic mismanagement. The North's population is now
estimated to be about 23.5 million as of last July by the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency.
Gharzeddine said there were no major problems with the field survey, but North
Koreans appeared confused about the unfamiliar terms like "heads of households,"
"industry" and "occupation" when the census was conducted.
"According to the DPRK Central Bureau of Statistics, people tend to report as
'household head' the person who is registered as such in the civil register, even
if the person has already left the household or will be away from home for an
extended period of time," he said.
"To address the issue, DPRK enumerators were instructed that in such cases, they
should ask the person they are interviewing to identify the head of the household
from among the current household members only."
Gharzeddine said the preliminary results of the census, such as population, are
expected to be available in approximately two to three months and the final
results by the end of next year.
sshim@yna.co.kr
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