South Koreans live 11 years longer than their North Korean counterparts, a gap unlikely to narrow for decades, a report said Thursday.

South Korean women live an average 84.6 years, 11.3 years longer than women in North Korea, according to the report from the OECD Korea Policy Centre in Seoul. South Korean men's average life span is 78 years, 11.7 years longer than their counterparts in North Korea.

The longevity gap began to appear in 1990, which the report attributed to North Korea's bout with floods, a series of natural disasters that caused food shortages and economic troubles, as well as dilapidated medical services. 

In 1965, South Korean women lived an average 57.6 years, not far different from 54.6 years for North Korean women. The difference narrowed for some time until it widened again to 3.3 years in 1990, after which the gap grew bigger, the report said.

In the case of men, South Koreans lived an average 52.3 years in 1965 compared with 48.4 years for North Koreans, a difference of

3.9 years. The gap became bigger starting in the 1980s, it said.

The report cites estimates from Statistics Korea to predict that the lifespan difference will remain at close to 10 years until 2060. By that year, South Korean women will live for 92.1 years compared with 81.6 years for North Korean women, it said. South Korean men will have an average life span of 86 years compared with 76.1 years for North Korean males.

"The difference in longevity between South and North Korea is much bigger than that for East and West Germany before their unification," Cho Kyoung-soo, who authored the report, said. "The famine and the collapse of medical services (in the North) that affected the difference is likely to continue for a number of decades, and it isn't likely to narrow for considerable time even after unification." (Yonhap)