The 2020 Global Gender Gap Report highlights the glacial and uneven pace of women's empowerment, and warns that gender equality is not likely to be achieved in the next century, let alone by 2030 (World Economic Forum, 2019). Similarly, the UN-commissioned Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) 2019 (UN, 2019) noted four ways in which the world is regressing rather than progressing on the sustainable development agenda, including rising (gender) inequalities (UN, 2019). Of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), progress on Goal 5 (the stand-alone Gender Equality SDG -though other gender equality targets are included under many of the other 16 goals) is among the slowest, with 119 of 129 countries receiving 'failing' or 'very poor' scores according to Equal Measures 2030's SDG Gender Index (EM2030, 2019); and almost all regions making limited or no progress on gender equality according to the United Nations

Objectives:To conduct a comparative study of children's health in South Korea versus North Korea focusing on air pollution. Methods: We used annual mortality rate, prevalence, and environmental indicators data from the World Bank and World Health Organizations (WHO). Trend analysis of the two Koreas was conducted to evaluate changes in health status over time. Spearman's correlation analysis was used to find out the correlation between environmental indicators and children's health status. Results: We found a distinct gap in children's health status between the two Koreas. While North Korea reported a higher death rate of children than South Korea, both showed a decreasing trend with the gap narrowing from 2000 to 2017. The prevalence of overweight and obesity increased and that of thinness decreased in both Koreas. Except PM 2.5 exposure, South Korea reported higher figures in most indicators of air pollutant emissions (South Korea, mean (SD)=28.3 (2.0); North Korea, mean (SD)=36.5 (2.8), P-value=0.002). Conclusion:This study empirically discovered the gaps and patterns of children's health between South Korea and North Korea. North Korean children experienced more severe health outcomes than children in South Korea. These findings imply that epigenetic modification caused by environmental stressors affect children's health in the two Koreas despite similar genetic characteristics. Considering the gaps in children's health between the two Koreas, more attention and resources need to be directed towards North Korea because the necessary commodities and services to improve children's health are lacking in North Korea.