Health in North Korea
[8] During the rule of Kim Il Sung, effective mandatory health checkups and immunization programs were initiated.
The medical infrastructure is fairly effective in preventive medicine, but less so in terms of treating the more demanding conditions.
A national telemedicine network was launched in 2010 that connects Kim Man-yu Hospital [ja] in Pyongyang with 10 provincial medical facilities.
[11] North Korea's healthcare system suffered a steep decline since the 1990s because of natural disasters, economic problems, and food and energy shortages.
[14] In 2010, Amnesty International and the World Health Organization made wildly varying claims on the state of the North Korean healthcare system.
The World Health Organization (WHO) criticized the Amnesty International report as outdated and factually inaccurate, describing the healthcare system as "the envy of the developing world" while acknowledging that "challenges remained, including poor infrastructure, a lack of equipment, malnutrition and a shortage of medicines."
The World Health Organization claimed that the report was based on a small sample of people who had left North Korea, some as far back as 2001, and did not reflect present conditions, particularly after recent improvements in the system due to a program funded by South Korea and aided by the WHO.
According to him, healthcare coverage was better during the reign of Kim Il Sung, with free hospital treatment available in the 1970s and 1980s, but patients must now pay doctors for their services and must also pay for the medicine and medical equipment used to treat them due to shortages, writing that "average North Koreans see their lives as left to fate.
Describing a personal case where he and his wife needed surgery, he claimed that they had to buy "everything from cotton and dressing to anesthetic (novocaine) and antibiotics (penicillin)", pay the surgeon, and treat the rest of the staff to a meal at a privately-run restaurant.
"[5] A study based on interviews with respondent-driven sampled defectors living in South Korea found that 65.4% of respondents paid out-of-pocket for medicines 82% for medical supplies and 75.9% for other items such as "meals or heating when in health facilities.
[20] Source: UN World Population Prospects[21] During the 1990s, North Korea was ravaged by famine, causing the death of between 500,000 and 3,000,000 people.
[3] Food shortages are ongoing today, with factors such as bad weather, lack of fertiliser, and a drop in international donation meaning that North Koreans do not have enough to eat.
A 2009 UNICEF report found that North Korea was "one of 18 countries with the highest prevalence of stunting (moderate and severe) among children under 5 years old".
[23] A survey conducted in 2017 found that most people had access to a toilet, but that 93% of sanitation facilities were not connected to a sewage system.
Rather, the human waste was used as fertilizer on fields, creating the potential health risk of spreading intestinal worms.
[23] In 2006, Professor Gerd Auffarth of Heidelberg University Eye Hospital in Germany was permitted to visit the country.
He reported on his experiences in 2011 in a video entitled, Ophthalmology Behind the Iron Curtain: Cataract Surgery in North Korea, saying that the economic conditions have led to improvisations – especially because of the absence of consumable medical devices but he commented that once a visiting surgeon adapts to these unique surroundings, he found that teaching and clinical work could be very effective and satisfying for both surgeon and patient.
[20] Approximately 54.8% of all North Korean adult males smoke an average of fifteen cigarettes per day.
In 2010, Amnesty International reported that North Korea was experiencing a tuberculosis epidemic, with 5% of the population infected with the disease.
[31] In 2009, one-third of the school-age children in North Korea were assessed as having diseases caused by intestinal parasites.
[47] Other aspects of the law also emphasize developing both traditional and modern medicine, which is reflected in most North Korean medical journals.
