S.Korea to release report on N.Korea's economic, social situations for 1st time

Seoul, May 2 South Korea's Unification Ministry on Tuesday said it plans to publish a report on economic and social situations in North Korea for the first time in November to help better understand people's lives in the secretive regime.

The report will include statistical analysis on social and demographic features in North Korea, and show changes in the North's economic and social situations, based on testimonies from the North's defectors, Yonhap News Agency quoted the Ministry as saying.

Since 2010, the government has collected in-depth information about North Koreans' economic and social activities from around 6,000 North Korean defectors.

The Ministry has compiled related reports but not made them public so far.

In late March, it had publicly released a report on North Korea's human rights situations for the first time, highlighting widespread rights abuses, such as public executions and torture.