Sunday, September 03, 2006

More on Stunted North Koreans

Chronic food shortages and malnutrition have stunted many North Koreans, making some look like dwarfs. Television footage broadcast in South Korea showed gaunt North Koreans scouring winter fields for grains left by reapers.

A 2004 survey of 2,300 North Korean defectors showed that average North Korean men and women are 5.9 centimeter and 4.1 centimeters shorter than their South Korean counterparts, respectively. An average 14-year-old boy from North Korea is up to 15.8 centimeters shorter than the same-aged South Korean.

[Also, concerning clothes sent to North Korea as part of a relief effort] North Korean officials want ... all without English writing on them. Relief workers said, "We pick out any clothing that has English writing on it. North Korean authorities apparently don't want their people to think the clothes are coming from their sworn enemy, the U.S."

[Yonhap News]

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