70.8 million populate S-N Korea, report says

One out of every three women around the world is abused at home by her husband or other family members through such means as physical violence or forced sex.

Especially in Asia, where the ideal of male dominance is prominent, at least 60 million suspected girl fetuses are aborted or killed soon after birth, or their chances in life are quashed through neglect.

These facts came to light in the report "The State of World Population 2000" on Wednesday in a joint effort between the United Nations Population Fund(UNFPA) and the Planned Parenthood Federation of Korea(PPFK).

The report revealed that the total world population was 6.69 billion, with South Korea accounting for 46.8 million and North Korea accounting for 24 million.

South Korea`s population growth rate was calculated at 0.8%, which is about half that of the global rate of 1.43%, and the infant mortality rate recorded 10 per 1,000, which is much less than the world`s rate of 57 per 1,000.

The report pointed out that millions of girls and women around the world face threats to their lives through domestic violence and sexual abuse. Especially in Islamic cultures, daughters are at times clubbed to death by their fathers for taking a walk with a man without a father`s approval. Annually, thousands of daughters are killed for the purpose of preserving family honor.

The report also stated that about one out of three, about 80 million, pregnancies were either unwanted or untimely, and that in order to reduce such pregnancies, abortions and the spread of venereal diseases, there is an absolute necessity for the protection of women. If women were given the right to decide the number of children they would bear, many nations might have average family sizes of one child.

shchung@donga.com