The Voice of America said on Tuesday that a recent UN report finds South Koreans live more than ten years longer on average than North Koreans.
 
The UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs said in a recently released 2017 revision to its world population prospects that North Koreans are now expected to live 71-point-nine years on average.
 
That’s ten-point-five years shorter than the average life expectancy for South Koreans. The North Korean figure is also four-point-six years and 12 years shorter compared to China and Japan, respectively.
 
The two Koreas showed no significant difference in average life expectancy in the early 1990s, with North Koreans expected to live 70 years, about three years less than South Koreans.
 
VOA said that the gap began to widen considerably in the mid-1990s when the North was hit by severe natural disasters, resulting in economic difficulties and a collapse of its public health and medical system.
 
North Korea is currently home to 21-point-five million people and those aged between 21 and 51 account for 51 percent of the entire population.

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