Anchor: A baby boy born in South Korea in 2011 is expected to live an average 77 years while a baby girl will likely live up to 84. The World Health Organization estimates an average South Korean’s life expectancy at 81, the 17th longest in the world. North Korea’s is below the global average.
Our Kim Soyon tells us more.

Report: South Koreans’ average life expectancy is 81 years old, the 17th highest among the 194 member nations of the WHO.

The world health body released its annual 2013 World Health Statistics report on Wednesday. Korea’s life expectancy of 81 is up from 72 in 1990. It’s also up another year from last year’s survey which was based on newborns in 2009. This year’s report estimated the life span of newborns in 2011.

In this year’s report, Korea’s life expectancy was the same as countries like Austria, Cyprus, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway. Korea’s 81 is also above the average 80 years for the high-income countries group which Korea belongs to.

The average life expectancy of all 194 WHO members is 70 years, and 68 for men and 72 for women. The WHO notes a big improvement over the years compared to 64 years in 1990.

North Korea’s life expectancy was below global average at 69. For men it was 65 and 72 for women. The figure actually shed one year from 1990.

North Korea, South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Lybia were the only countries whose life expectancies dropped from their 1990 levels.

The fatality rate of North Korean infants under 12 months also went up from 23 out of one thousand newborns in 1990 to 26 out of a thousand for babies born in 2011.
Kim Soyon, KBS World Radio News.