North Korean Economy Watch

The Daily NK compared pupoluation statistics from the Population Resource Bureau.

Here are the statistics on North Korea.

Here are the statistics on South Korea.

Here is the story:

North Korea’s infant mortality reaches 21 for every 1000 due to the country’s poor medical system.

A non-profit demographic institute Population Research Bureau (PRB) reported on Thursday that, as of mid-2006, North Korea’s population is approximately 23.1 million and it is expected to increase to 25.8 million in 2025 and 26.4 million, an increase of 14% from now, in 2050.

North Korea’s birth rate is 16 per 1000 people and death rate is 7 for every thousand, and the natural population increase is 0.9%.

North Korea’s infant mortality (21 for every 1000), which is far higher than that of South Korea (5 for every 1000), implies the North’s weak health care system. The average life expectancy is 71 years, 68 for men and 73 for women. Urban population rate is 60 percent.

According to the report, this year’s world population is 6.55 billion and expected to reach 7.94 billion in 2025 and 9.24 billion, 41 percent more than now, in 2050.

Meanwhile, the primary reason for North Korean infants’ death is respiratory infection and diarrhea. And a third of total North Korean infants are suffering serious malnutrition.

From Yonhap:
8/4/2006

S. Korean drug companies to send medical aid to N. Korea

SEOUL– An association of South Korean drug companies said Friday that it will send medical supplies to flood-devastated North Korea.

Torrential rains pounded the communist country in mid-July, leaving hundreds of people killed or missing, according to United Nations and other international aid workers operating in the country. The floods also wiped out arable land that could lead to the loss of 100,000 tons of crops, they said.

From Joong Ang Daily:

With bipartisan nod, Seoul to fund NGO flood aid
8/5/2006

Prompted by bipartisan recommendations from political parties that the government should send medicines and emergency food to flood victims in the North, a government official said yesterday it will provide financial support upon request for humanitarian assistance projects by non-governmental groups.

“The Grand National and the Democratic Labor parties said [Thursday] that humanitarian aid programs should resume, and we welcome such a position,” Uri Party chairman Kim Geun-tae said yesterday. “Humanitarian aid to the North must not be blocked by politics.” He urged the government to resume its humanitarian aid to the North unconditionally.

After North Korea fired seven missiles and refused discussions about the launch with the South last month, Seoul withheld previously promised rice and fertilizer aid in protest.

A senior Unification Ministry official said yesterday that the government would participate in the provision of relief goods to help North Korean flood victims through non-governmental groups. The Roh Moo-hyun administration is seriously considering funding relief groups when they seek government help.

“We believe that civic groups will make their requests for help next week,” the official said. “Because it is an emergency relief program, the government will participate.”

The non-governmental groups’ aid package includes rice, and the government is expected to fund the food in the aid package. The Grand Nationals, however, said earlier that relief food to the North should not include rice.

While no accurate flood damage assessment in the North is available, the Food and Agricultural Organization said yesterday that torrential rains in July flooded about 5,000 hectares (19.3 square miles), or 2 percent of the farmland in North Korea, adding that the country, which was still recovering from years of famine, lost about 1,000 tons of corn and beans from the disaster.

A spokesman for an alliance of South Korean civic groups, the South Korean Committee for Implementation of the June 15 Joint Declaration, said its delegation may be able to get more accurate information about the flood damage by next week. Committee members will meet with their North Korean counterparts at the Mount Kumgang resort on Friday to discuss the canceled inter-Korean celebration of Liberation Day, the Aug. 15 anniversary of Japan’s surrender in 1945. The North called it off earlier this week, citing severe flood damage. At the meeting, the two sides are expected to talk about humanitarian aid for flood victims.

Meanwhile, the flood disaster in the North rang alarm bells in the South about the potential for an epidemic as the number of patients with malaria in the North reportedly increased after last month’s flooding. Earlier this month, a South Korean activist group, Good Friends, said that an increasing number of malaria patients have been found in Kaesong and Haeju in the North after the flood.

The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention said mosquitoes could fly from North Korea to South Korean regions near the Demilitarized Zone. According to the center’s data from January to June, 333 patients with malaria were reported to the center, up 47 percent from 226 patients in the same period last year. The western parts of the DMZ, Gimpo and Paju in Gyeonggi province and Ganghwa in Incheon, are likely to be infested by malaria mosquitoes, flying up to 18 kilometers from Kaesong, Jangpyong, and Tosan in North Korea, the center said.

From the Eugene Bell Foundation: 

Public health officials from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) today visited Washington, DC to attend a private conference on tuberculosis. The five-person Korean delegation was invited by the Eugene Bell Foundation, an American faith-based organization that provides essential support to one-third of North Korea’s tuberculosis system.

The conference, hosted by the George Washington University graduate schools of medicine and public health, focused on including local communities in the global effort to fight multi-drug resistant tuberculosis.

The Korean delegation is scheduled to travel throughout the United States this week to visit tuberculosis experts, national centers and research labs.

For more information, please contact:
Alice Jean Suh
Washington Office Director, Eugene Bell Foundation 202-329-2410 alice@eugenebell.org

From the Daily NK:

NK Whooping Cough…Infant Deaths Helpless

It has recently been confirmed that some children have died of ‘whooping cough’, an acute respiratory epidemic, in Hamhung and Chongjin. In Chongjin, children under 12 are restricted from taking long-trips.

Among North Koreans who have visited areas surrounding Yanbian, rumor has it that “Since this spring, the number of coughing children has increased”, yet this was the first time that a death from a respiratory epidemic was confirmed.

“In Hamhung, some infants have died”

On the 12th, Park Chul Man (pseudonym, 62, Hamhung) who came into China via Tumen said that, “Since mid-April, wooping cough has increased among preschool children, and since June, some infants have died. In Hamhung and Chongjin, all children from infancy to elementary school-age are restricted from going on long trips”.

Kang Sun Mi (pseudonym, 59, Sariwon), from Yanji said that, “Across areas of Hwanghae province, many children suffer from whooping cough”. Kim added that, “children with the illness are confined to preschools, or elementary schools, and their parents bring medicine and food to them daily”.

Whooping cough is an acute respiratory disease to which infants below 5 years old are particularly vulnerable. Throughout the world, 40,000 people die from it annually. After an incubation period of 1 to 3 weeks, children develop a high fever, a runny nose, and continue to cough and tear”.

According to a WTO report, amongst poor countries. wooping cough accounts for 15% of total annual deaths, with the highest death rate recorded in children under 6 years old. The side effects from high fever are usually brain damage and liver failure.

According to Kang, the parents of the sick children take care of all the children confinded to preschools, or elementary schools.

Kang said that, “Because there is no medicine or doctors, it was decided that the should parents do all the nursing work”.

Except for in Pyongyang, the preventive inoculation system is totally destroyed

According to witnesses, since 2002, the preventive inoculation system has been completely destroyed, except for some operation in Pyongyang.

Kim, a defector doctor living in Longjing, explaiend that, “Til 2001, some medicine sent from the U.N. and other sources abroad had been available in Hwamkyung province. However, recently all the medicine goes into Jangmadang to be sold. It is impossible for poor parents to get their children inoculated”.

Kim added that, “the fact that Children over 10 years old have come down with whopping cough shows that the preventive inoculation system in the North is completely dysfunctional”.

According to the UNFPA, the 2004 infant death rate in North Korea is 58 out of 1,000 infants, which is ten times as high as that of South Korea (5.3 out of 1,000 infants).

In 2000, UNICEF reported that, “92.4% of North Korean children under 5 years old were inoculated with DPT to prevent whooping cough, tetanus and diphtheria”.

From the Daily NK:

North Koreans “1 out of 10 Households Have Diseased Patients”

Paratyphoid, an acute illness of the digestive system, is spreading over North Hwanghae province, including Haeju City.

Paratyphoid is an epidemic which spread throughout Hamkyung, Jakang, Yangkang provinces during the ‘March of Tribulation’ in the mid-90’s.

“Just Education, No Inoculation”

On July 12, Choi Gil Yeo (pseudonym, 59, Haeju of South Hwanghae province) who returned from visiting her relatives in Dandong, China said that, “Since May, the number of Paratyphoid patients has been rising in Haeju city, Chongdan-gun and Shinwon-gun. At least 1 out of 10 households has a Paratyphoid patient”.

Regarding the measures the North Korean government has taken, Choi said that, “the administration and the Public Health administration instructed people “to drink boiled water” and “confine patients to houses”, but did not take any action on vaccination or prevention of the epidemics”.

On the 13th, Kim, a Chinese trader staying in Shinuiju, said during a phone interview that, “In Shinuiju, rumor has it that Paratyphoid is spreading over Hwanghae province, and wholesalers from Haeju, Sariwon, and Nampo have been purchasing increasingly more antibiotics, dextrose packs and syringes.

An interview with Choi is as follows:

To what degree is Paratyphoid spreading?Have there been any deaths?

“Some people have died. I heard from a people’s unit (a neighborhood association) meeting that some have died in Seohae-dong, Gwnagsuk-dong, Yeonha-dong, and Sukmi-dong of Haeju city. Chongdan-gun and Shinwon-gun have had a few deaths. I do not know what the number is, yet at least 1 out of 10 houses has a patient. In the apartment where I live there are two patients.”

The Main Causes Are Polluted Water and Malnutrition

How did the North Korean people discover the causes of the illnesses?

“Originally, tap water from Haeju city and South Hwanghae province was not sufficient to drink. Tap water is salty and has rust as well as some earthworms and insects in it, but that has been the case since two or three years ago. Each district has dug wells to solve the problem. People think that polluted water is the cause of the epidemic, although the more important cause is malnutrition.”

What symptoms do Paratyphoid patients experience?

“A woman living in the house below me had begun to get sick in mid-June, with a 41℃ temperature. She had a high fever, and for one or two days at a time she would be delirious, then would be herself again. But if diarrhea begins, there is no chance of survival. Surviving would mean living without normal brain capacity for the rest of your life.”

How are hospitals treating patients?

“Hospitals? At the moment, Haeju does not have any fully-functioning hospitals. No medicine, no doctors, no patients who want to go to the doctor. Only for surgical operations do people go to the hospital. These kinds of epidemics are not curable even at hospitals. People just treat themselves at home as much as possible. The Haeju 1 hospital and Haeju medical university are also hopeless.”

“The government takes “No responsibility”, everything should be solved in Jangmadang”

What does home treatment consist of?

“Wealthy people just go and buy medicine, but poor people put a cool towel on their head to lower fever and then eat warm soup. The poor do not care whether they live or die…Because they have no way of receiving help. A doctor’s visit costs about 5,000 to 10,000 won ($1.67~$3.33) each. With that money, they could buy medicine in Jangmadang and try to treat themselves.”

What kinds of medicine do they buy?

“Usually they buy Chinese medicine called “Lebo” in Jangmadang. “Lebo” consists of tablets and powdered medicine which is taken with dextrose. They also take antifebriles sent by the U.N.”

How much does the medicine cost?

“Syringes are 200 won ($0.07) a piece, which can be used again with sterilization. Dextrose (25 mg) is 250 won a pack. “Lebo” is 1,500 won ($0.5) a piece. Antifebriles sent by the U.N. are 300 won ($0.1) a tablet. “Lebo” is effective if injected with powdered medicine and dextrose twice a day. Twice daily injections and a piece of antifebrile cost 3.000 won ($1), which for a month costs a patient 10,000 won.”

Is it easy to buy the medicine in Jangmadang?

The Seo Market in Yeonha-dong, Haeju city has the biggest variety of medicine. You can buy the medicine anytime if you have the money. But the price of Paratyphoid medicine and antifebriles are increasing. In Seo Market there are a couple of stalls which buy medicine from wholesalers in Shinuiju and sell it. State-run drug stores do not have medicine any more, so they are used as grocery stores. In Jangmadang, most of the medicine is from the U.S. and China, and the little medicine that was made in North Korea is very coarse.

Paratyphoid is an epidemic from malnutrition and poverty

Are families of patients preparing for the epidemic?

“Paratyphoid is an epidemic that generally the poor and malnourished people are vulnerable to. A normal monthly wage for many is less than 2000 won ($0.67), which means if the people come down with the illness, they cannot afford to buy medicine. Poverty leads to the disease, and also often leads to the worsening of the situation.”

How about tap water?

“Only in places such as Gwangsuk-dong and Haewoon-dong, does tap water still run sufficiently. altough it is only public tap water. Almost everyone must rely on wells and springs buried in the mountains.”

What kind of action has the Health administration taken?

“The only thing the government does is “education”, instructing people to drink boiled tap water, confine patients to their houses, and sterilize bowls and spoons. The government has only watched as people die of starvation and illness.”

Have you ever received medicine sent by the U.N and South Korea?

“Everyone knows that the U.N. and South Korea send medicine. However, hospitals and clinics do not receive the medicine. Even state-run pharmacies do not have any medicine. All the medicine is sold in Jangmadang.”

Epidemic in North Korea spreads despite quarantine
From Yonhap
11/15/2006

Scarlet fever has been spreading fast in North Korea for nearly a month and is showing signs of becoming a full-blown pandemic despite efforts by North Korean authorities to contain the disease, a source close to the North said Wednesday.

The disease first broke out in the communist state’s northern Yanggang Province last month, but is quickly spreading to other parts of the country, the source told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity.
 

From the Daily NK:
7/19/2006

It has recently been learned that such acute infectious diseases as Paratyphoid, Whooping Cough and Leprosy are going around Yangkang, Hamkyung, and Hwanghae provinces, and are beginning to spread all over the country.

This news came after a follow-up story reported by two special correspondents from the DailyNK, who examined N.Korean border areas and interviewed 17 North Korean residents from those areas.

“It is certainly a period of hardship. The North Korean people do not have enough to eat and so are malnourished. All kinds of unidentified epidemics are spreading out over the country. Two or three house in each area seem to have a few infectious cases. Tuberculosis is not considered as a serious disease. Women and the elderly come down with Paratyphoid, and children infected with Whooping Cough are confined in preschools”, said Choi Gil Yeo (pseudonym, 59, Haeju of South Hwanghae province).

“It is similar to what occurred during the ‘March of Tribulation’ 10 years ago”

Last spring, the diseases appeared in Hwanghae, Yangkang, and North Hamkyung provinces, and they have been spreading to inland areas since.

in addition, some people living in Yangkang province came down with ‘unidentified epidemics’ whose symptoms are oozing skin sores. resembling leprosy. Many in the North Korean government fear that the disease is a rection to infected beef or pork ingested by people who were subsequently stricken with the illness.

During the last 3 months of research, all of the North Koreans (11 defectors and 6 travelers) interviewed in the border areas around the Yalu and Tumen Rivers expressed the same opinion that, “Various epidemics are going around. It is similar to the March of Tribulation period (when numerous North Koreans died of starvation in the mid-90s). During the period, all kinds of epidemics were going around”.

Present travelers to China are already aware of the names, symptoms and causes of the epidemics thanks to local household educators and medicinal peddlers in Jangmadang, illustrating that the epidemics have already begun to spread all over the country.

People who are infected with Paratyphoid experience high fever, diarrhea and acute digestive problems. The epidemic seems to have began in Hwang Hae province and later spread to Pyongan and Hamkyung provinces. Deaths due to Paratyphoid have been increasing.

On June 12, Choi Gil Yeo, who came back from visiting her relatives in Dandong said that, “Since the end of May, the number of Paratyphoid patients and deaths has been rising in Haeju city, and the Chungdan district and Shinwon districts. I do not know how many people are infected, but at least 1 out of 10 households is infected with Paratyphoid”.

Prevention through nutrition: “the disease appears only in poor countries”

Whooping Cough is an acute respiratory disease which often affects children under the age of 10, and has spread to some areas of North Hwanghae, Hamkyung, and Pyongan provinces. In Hamheung province a few children have died from the illness.

Park Chul Man (pseudonym, 62, South HamKyung province), who came into China via Tomen maritime customs in Yanbian reported that, “Since the middle of April, Whooping Cough has been going around among children in preschools, and in June, a few infants died. In Hamheung and Chungjin provinces, even elementary school students are restricted from traveling due to fears of the disease spreading”.

In Haesan, in the Kim-hyeong-jik district of Hangkang province, unidentified epidemics are spreading.

Defector Lee Sung Hee (pseudonym, 25) said that, “Some infected cows and pigs were sold at butchers in Jangmadang, and people who ate the diseased meat showed symptoms of peeling and oozing skin. We do not yet know what it is, but people are calling it leprosy”.

Lee said that, “The North Korean government has restricted meat sales in Yangkang province. In addition, Haesan, Kim-hyeong-jik, Kimjongsook and Bochun districts are also under tight control in order to prevent the diseased meat from being introduced into those areas”.

In the meantime, defector Park Jeong Hwa (pseudonym, 36) added that, “I spoke with my family in North Korea over the phone and heard that leprosy was going around. Now, when people are issued a travel certificate by the police, a “personal hygiene certificate” from the health administration is also necessary”.

The North Korean government systemically deprives citizens of medicine provided by the international society

The North Korean people see malnutrition as the main cause of the epidemics.

Generally, diseases in North Korea have come from malnutrition, and are considered diseases that occur only in poor countries. An important note regarding the current epidemic is that the diseases are similar to the ones that prevailed during the period of famine in the mid-90s.

Kang Sun Mi (pseudonym, 59, Sariwon) from Yanji said that, “Tuberculosis, typhoid fever, paratyphoid, and whooping cough are the same diseases that prevailed during the March of Tribulation, which many people fear is beginning again”.

Defector Kim, working as a doctor in Longjing, said that, “North Korean hospitals do not have medicine or medical instruments, and doctors do not receive food rations, forcing them to go to Jangmadang or to work for the Foreign currency department”.

Kim said that, “officers working at National organizations monopolize all medicine and food aid so that normal citizens do not have access to them”.

Kim also said that, “medicines are light and small, and are therefore easy to exchange for cash. National organizations and the foreign currency department therefore want medicines more than food aid. if the international society would like to provide medicinal aid, it should be given to local clinics directly rather than big hospitals in cities”.

On the other hand, some North Koreans, including those interviewed since July 5, responded that it was natural for them to have been informed about the missile test from a wired broadcast aired by (North) Korean Central Broadcasting, the only broadcasting channel operated in the North.

Joong Ang Daily
6/9/2006

South Korea plans to donate US$1.14 million worth of medicine, insecticides, mosquito nets and goods to combat malaria in North Korea, South Korea’s state-run disease prevention center said Friday.

The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention plans to ship the goods Saturday from Incheon port, west of Seoul, to the North Korean port in Nampo. The goods will be delivered to the Pyongyang office of the World Health Organization.

Daily NK
Kwon Jeong Hyun
5/26/2006

In North Korea, domestic rice prices are showing a sharp rise.  In mid May, the price of rice in North Pyongan province was 1,300W ($0.43)/1kg. Compared to the price in May 2005, it rose 500W ($0.17). In Jangmadang, there is a rumor that rice will rise to 2,000 won ($0.67), so it seems that it’s just a matter of time before rice becomes more expensive.

The reason for the rising cost of rice is simple: a lack of rice. The rice stored in Autumn has begun to run out and there are not enough edible plants to go around. North Korea calls this period the Spring Austerity Season. This period is the hardest season for North Koreans.

The average wage of North Koreans is 3,000W($1). To be more exact, it means that 4 family members have to live off of 1.5kg of rice a month. Everybody struggles to survive by doing business, digging up edible plants, getting help from relatives living in China, and selling scrap iron.

The following is March prices from North Pyongan province. This shows the great difference from this year’s price. Except for food and groceries, the price does not vary much:

From Yonhap:

A Chinese delegation of avian influenza experts arrived in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on Sunday, according to state media there.

The Chinese group visited the statue of former North Korean leader Kim Il-sung in downtown Pyongyang, said the (North) Korean Central Television Broadcasting Station, monitored here, but it did not report the purpose of the group’s visit.

The Chinese government has donated equipment and material to North Korea to conduct an examination for bird flu, and on Wednesday signed an agreement with Pyongyang for cooperation regarding examination and possible quarantine measures.

North Korea has not reported a case of bird flu ever since an outbreak earlier last year was brought under control.

This is an interesting aticle from the Daily NK:

Plastic surgery has been prvalent in the DPRK for some time. In Shinuiju it accounts for more than 60% of the famle population.

Trader Kim Man Gil (pseudonym, 53) who trades in shoes and clothes coming and going to Shinuiju and Dandong said that, “North Korean […] women have increasingly gotten plastic surgery on the eyes”, and “At a glance, more than half of young women walking in the streets have traces of plastic surgery”.

North Korean has implicitly allowed plastic surgery hospitals in Pyongyang, Chongjin and Shinuiju to operate for simple double-eyelids plastic surgery and tattoo eyebrows. Officially the North Korean government does not permit plastic surgery, yet defectors said that in big cities plastic surgery is overtly done with connivance. (NKeconwatch is skeptical of this claim.  In Pyongyang there is a hospital that does plastic surgery, and a simple gift can get you an appointment.)

Regarding women who work at North Korean tourist resorts, the North Korean government exceptionally and actively pursued plastic surgery. It is an already well known fact through witnesses of North Korean women living in North Korea.

Mr. Kim said that, “It was from 2004 that plastic surgery of non-licensed operators, not of doctors, has been in vogue”, and “Although the government does not let plastic surgery, because of very extensive popularity, there have hardly been practical crack-downs on it.

He also said that, “Because in Shinuiju many people are working at the workplaces related to Foreign Currency Earning departments and thus well-off, they have enough money to get plastic surgery”, and “Yet women who do not have enough money tend to get plastic surgery even by selling food”.

He said that, “However, in counties or districts away from Shinuiju most of people have no money so that one of three children in a family could not go to school. The gulf between rich and poor is really wide and serious”.

He said that, “Plastic surgery items are limited to relatively simple double-eyelids surgery and tattooing eyebrows. As for Shinuiju, 60% of single women without double eyelids seemed to get plastic surgery”. Subsequently, he said that, “North Korean women and Chinese women are all the same in that women want to be pretty”.

The feature of North Korean double-eyelids plastic surgery is that after an operation, lower eyelids are rather thick, so that eyes look artificial, not natural.

Plastic surgery on one eye cost 500W ($0.17) in 2004, yet now is quoted 1,500 won($0.5) in 2006. Both eyes cost 3,000 won, and 1 dollar if converting into U.S dollar. As for tattooing eyebrows, it costs one eyebrow 200 won($0.067) in 2004, and now 500 won.  (talk about price competition)

In order to confirm that 60% of young women living in Shinuiju got double-eyelids plastic surgery Daily NK contacted a North Korean insider. During the confirmation, we were asked “Why does to be pretty sound strange? Because it does not cost much, wealthy women already got plastic surgery or try to get it”.

Mr. Kim said “Almost all the people have gotten plastic surgery through recommendations of other people. And well-known surgery operators would make great money”.