N. Korea`s poor health to pose burden to S. Korea after reunification: report

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 (Yonhap) -- The widespread malnutrition in North Korea caused
by famine in the 1990s will likely burden South Korea once the two Koreas are
reunified, a U.S. government report has said.
"If reunification occurs, South Korea will face costs not only of incorporating
an economic
void, but also those of a huge health-care burden," said the report of the National
Intelligence Council released recently.
The report, titled the Strategic Implications of Global Health, also said that
South Korea may have to "look to other countries or to multilateral organizations
to help defray expenses" for health care in North Korea, which has a health-care
system ranked 167th out of 190 countries by the World Health Organization.
Poor health is also "weakening military readiness because capable new recruits
are in short supply," it said.
The report attributed the poor health of North Koreans to famine in the 1990s,
when years of floodings and poor harvests are said to have caused millions of
North Koreans to starve to death.
"Economic crisis and famine of the 1990s fueled breakdown of a once-efficient
health-care system," it said. "Lack of medicine, equipment, sanitation, and
reliable energy supplies make quality health care virtually unobtainable outside
of Pyongyang."
The famine of the 1990s also destroyed "absolute state control of food rationing,
internal
movement of citizens, and information as North Koreans were compelled to defy state
restrictions in their struggle for survival and as those who had escaped to China in
search of
food and work returned with news of the outside world," according to the report.
"Even after the widespread famine of the 1990s, prolonged and severe malnutrition
persisted;
more than half of North Korean children are stunted or underweight, while two-thirds of
young adults are malnourished or anemic," it said.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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