hankyoreh

According to a copy of North Korea’s 2008 census obtained Tuesday by the Hankyoreh, estimates indicate that the number of North Koreans who starved to death during the so-called “March of Tribulation” in the mid to late 1990s following the country’s economic, food and energy crises is estimated around 340 thousand people. Park Keong-suk, Seoul National University sociology professor and expert in population studies, reached this conclusion after comparing and analyzing data from the 2008 census and the 1993 census reportedly carried out independently by North Korean authorities. The latest figures are considered have a relatively greater amount of objectivity than the various projections presented previously, as they have been gathered through a formal census procedure.

Park said, “If you ignore the scale of migrants (overseas North Koreans who cannot be confirmed statistically), North Korea’s population loss since 1993 as a result of the size of changes in birth and death rates is estimated at around 630 thousand people.” Park added that the population loss as a result of the falling birth rate is around 290 thousand, while the loss resulting from an increased death rate is around 340 thousand.

Park also noted a major difference in population loss as a result of an increased death rate, with men totaling around 240 thousand members of the lost population and women around 100 thousand. Park added, “This appears to be a tendency in line with the common view that men show less adaptability than women when the living environment deteriorates.”

Regarding the calculation method for these estimates, Park said, “Assuming that the birth and death rates from the 1993 census have been sustained, it refers to the difference in scale from the population confirmed in the 2008 census.”

She added, “In any event, there is no statistical basis for the claims some people have made that two to three million people died of starvation.”

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