SEOUL - The South Korean government is considering around $6 million of financial support for North Korea's upcoming census, the first in a decade, local media reported Friday.

Yonhap News Agency quoted a Unification Ministry source as saying that Seoul is in consultation with the U.N. Population Fund, or UNFPA, "which wants our government to offer some $6 million."

North Korea announced in March that it plans a preliminary survey of its population this year in preparation for the census slated for next year, to be held in cooperation with the UNFPA.

Its last census was held in 2008, at which time Seoul provided $4 million from an inter-Korean cooperation fund. Seoul committed in 2015 to offer assistance from the same fund to support the UNFPA with the next census in the North.

The results of the 2008 census showed that North Korea's population had reached more than 24 million people, having increased by nearly 3 million since the previous one in 1993.

By contrast, South Korea's population currently stands at over 50 million, according to government statistics.

==Kyodo