The U.S. National Intelligence Council (NIC) says malnutrition-related cognitive disabilities among North Korean children and young people are likely to hinder future economic growth and could become an economic burden should the two Koreas unify.

In a report called ‘Strategic Implications of Global Health,’ the NIC said prolonged and severe malnutrition persists today, nearly a decade after the widespread famine of the 1990s. The report went on to explain that more than half of North Korean children are stunted or underweight, while two-thirds of young adults are malnourished or anemic.

The report, jointly published by five U.S. intelligence agencies including the Central Intelligence Agency, analyzed that widespread malnutrition and accompanying physical and cognitive disabilities among North Korean children and young people would likely inhibit the country’s economic growth, regardless of whether it opens up to the outside world or reunites with the South.