Radio Free Asia says the World Health Organization will start a project to improve maternal and infant health in North Korea.

Eigil Sorenson, head of WHO's office in Pyongyang, told RFA Thursday that the project aims to improve the North's health system.

He said the organization hopes to help local clinics provide a safe environment for mothers and infants and more effectively deal with birth problems, calling the biggest hurdle backward medical practices in the North.

A survey by a North Korean population think tank found that 87 out of 100,000 babies die at birth in the North, three or four times higher than the rate in South Korea.