Title page
Contents
I. Introduction 6
II. Collapse of the Public Health Care System 13
1. The Operation and Accessibility of Public Medical Institutions 14
2. Widening Economic and Political-Social Gap in Accessibility to Public Health Care Services 19
3. Accessibility to Medicine and Medical Supplies 24
III. Self-reliance (Charkyok Kaengsaeng) in Health Care Sector 26
1. Deterioration in the Quality of Public Health Care and Increasingly Common Private Medical Practices 27
2. Increasing Trend of Self-Reliance among North Koreans 32
3. Serious Drug Misuse and Abuse 35
IV. Disaster and North Korean Residents' Right to Health 40
1. Impact of Disaster on People's Lives 41
2. The Impact of COVID-19 on right to health 48
V. Conclusion 56
Table II-1. North Korea's Medical Institutions (As of 2014) 17
Table III-1. Education & Training Institutions and Periods for Medical Personnel 31
Table III-2. A Testimony on Opium 36
Table III-3. Comparison of Drug Crime Articles in North Korea's Criminal Law 38
Table IV-1. Death Penalty Provisions under the Emergency Quarantine Law of North Korea 47
Table IV-2. A Testimony on Covid-19 and Opium 51
Figure I-1. Connective Features of the Right to Health 7
Figure I-2. Changes North Korea's Health Care-related Legislations 10
Figure II-1. North Korea's Medical Facilities and Medical Service Delivery System 16
Figure II-2. North Korea's Primary Medical Institutions 18
Figure II-3. General Clinics of Chollima Steelworks 18
Figure II-4. North Korea's Tertiary Hospital Effectively Served Only for the Privileged Class 20
Figure III-1. Gap in Accessibility for Health Care Facilities (General Hospital vs. Private Hospital) 28
Figure III-2. Quarantine Education in Gyeonglu General Clinics, Central District, Pyongyang 34
Figure III-3. North Korean Residents Inhaling Opium 37
Figure IV-1. North Korea's Crisis Management Indicator in 2022 42
Figure IV-2. Global Health Security Index in 2021 43
Figure IV-3. Kim Jong un Inspecting Flood-damaged Areas 45
Figure IV-4. North Korea's COVID-19 Quarantine Poster 49
Figure IV-5. Daily Outbreak of COVID-19 Analyzed through North Korea's Media Reporting 50
Figure IV-6. North Kora's Folk Remedies for COVID-19 52
Figure IV-7. Changes in Child Vaccination Rates after COVID-19 55
Figure V-1. Reality of the Right to Health 59