North Korea's mortality rate for children under age 5 was estimated at 17 per 1,000 births last year with a 3.2 percent annual rate of reduction over the past three decades, a recent UN report showed.

The number is down from 43 in 1990 and 60 in 2000, according to the Level and Trends in Child Mortality: Report 2021.

The global average of under-five mortality rate came to 37 per 1,000 in 2020, while the comparable figure for South Korea declined from 16 in 1990 to eight in 2000 and three last year.

North Korea's infant mortality rate also dropped from 33 per 1,000 births in 1990 to 12 in 2020, and the neonatal mortality rate fell from 22 per 1,000 births to nine during the cited period, the report said. (Yonhap)