A medical study shows that on average, young North Korean escapees are shorter than youths in South Korea.

According to a study by a medical professor at Seoul National University, young North Korean escapees are an average of six centimeters shorter than their South Korean counterparts.

On average, males ages 15 to 24 from North Korea are 164 centimeters tall while females in the same age bracket are some 152 centimeters tall.

More than 80 percent of the young North Korean escapees studied exhibit signs of anxiety and 42 percent suffer from depression.

The study was conducted on some 100 North Korean escapees from 2007 to 2008.