North Korea’s maternal mortality rate dropped by 43% from 2000 to 2020, according to a new U.N. report released Thursday, a development that follows years of international efforts to assist pregnant women in the country.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 107 North Korean women died per 100,000 births in 2020, declining from 186 deaths per 100,000 births two decades earlier.

The report does not detail what data the WHO used to make its estimates, but it states that researchers generally relied on countries’ civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems that involve the “routine registration of births and