Researching Pyongyang?

The Chosun Daily is reporting (in Korean) it has obtained data from a September 2004 Pyongyang census containing the names, gender, birthdates, address, and related information for over two million adults (age over 17) living in the city. The data reportedly originated from North Korean internal security services and was somehow smuggled out of the North and obtained by a South Korean intelligence source working in the China, North Korean border region.



According to the data, at the time of the survey, there were only 71 men for every 100 women living in the city – a discrepancy the story attributed to large numbers of men being away for mandatory military service (which lasts approximately ten years in the North).



Other data shows the number of foreigners living in the city: 124, out of a total population of over two million. A haven of cosmopolitanism Pyongyang is not.



For more on the story, including (at the bottom) information on how to contact the paper for permission to access the data, click here and take a look. As noted above, the story is in Korean.


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