Humanitarian Aid to North Korea: Part 3 - Healthcare

  • 12th August 2015
Humanitarian Aid to North Korea: Part 3 - Healthcare

North Korea’s constitution guarantees medical treatment for all of its citizens. Yet millions of North Koreans live without access to basic healthcare. A combination of problems including poor infrastructure, lack of supplies, absent political will, and mismanagement of international aid has led to paralysis in North Korea’s healthcare system. Today, patients with medical needs seek traditional remedies, opt for self-treatment, or simply go untreated.

Part three in a series of EAHRNK Policy Reviews on humanitarian aid to North Korea, this paper analyses the state of North Korea’s healthcare system, finds that present means of engagement have neglected improvements in the quality of medical care, and concludes with policy implications that aim to shift the focus of future discussion from engaging the regime to assisting the medical needs of the patients and respecting the human rights of North Korean citizens.

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Policy Review

  • Humanitarian Aid to North Korea: Part 3 - Healthcare

    North Korea’s constitution guarantees medical treatment for all of its citizens. Yet millions of North Koreans live without access to basic healthcare. A combination of problems including poor infrastructure, lack of supplies, absent political will, and mismanagement of international aid has led to paralysis in North Korea’s healthcare system. Today, patients with medical needs seek traditional remedies, opt for self-treatment, or simply go untreated.

    Part three in a series of EAHRNK Policy Reviews on humanitarian aid to North Korea, this paper analyses the state of North Korea’s healthcare system, finds that present means of engagement have neglected improvements in the quality of medical care, and concludes with policy implications that aim to shift the focus of future discussion from engaging the regime to assisting the medical needs of the patients and respecting the human rights of North Korean citizens.

    Written on 12th August 2015
  • Humanitarian Aid to North Korea: Part 2 - Disability Rights

    It is estimated that up to 800,000 people in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) are living with a disability. Coping with physical, mental, cognitive, and developmental limitations within a system governed by physical and psychological abuse presents serious challenges to those living with impairments. Considering the dire human rights landscape of the DPRK, it is perhaps unsurprising that social marginalisation, discrimination, segregation, physical and mental abuse, and absent care define the experiences of many disabled North Koreans.

    Given that the DPRK government manifestly fails to care for its population, a range of international actors, including European states and non-governmental organisations, have engaged the DPRK government with an aim of improving the prospects of persons with disabilities. But an overwhelming body of evidence suggests that: 1) Disability rights remain non-existent in the DPRK; 2) That the North Korean state routinely abuses its disabled population; 3) That external engagement has, and continues to be, structurally ineffective and open to manipulation by state authorities.

    Part Two in a series of EAHRNK Policy Reviews on humanitarian aid to North Korea, this paper assesses the current state of engagement on disability issues with the DPRK government, noting the chasm between the hopes of implementers and the realities of practice, and proposes a series of recommendations for the international community to improve engagement on this topic in North Korea.

    Written on 26th June 2015
  • Humanitarian Aid to North Korea: Part 1 - Food Aid

    For over two decades, the international community has provided the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) with emergency food aid and cooperation. However, the majority of the North Korean population still remain chronically food insecure.

    The United Nations Commission of Inquiry on human rights in the DPRK (COI) established that the North Korean leadership is the underlying driver of hunger, famine, and food insecurity. Mass starvation and hunger have not been consequences of natural disasters or international sanctions; instead, they have been conscious policy choices imposed by the DPRK leadership to suppress and exterminate sections of North Korean society deemed expendable.

    Evidently, these findings should call the continued viability of food aid into question and demand that new policies to ensure food security be implemented. Part One in a series of EAHRNK Policy Reviews on humanitarian aid to North Korea, this paper assesses the current situation of food aid to the DPRK and proposes a series of recommendations to help feed the North Korean people.

    Written on 26th May 2015
  • Ending the Forced Labour of North Korean Children

    Millions of North Korean children are forced to work in labour-intensive roles that threaten their health, education, and development. Subjected to violence and ideological indoctrination, children suffer untold physical hardships and mental trauma for the profit of the state. In violation of its own legislation and international law, the DPRK leadership is pivotal to this abuse. This policy analysis assesses the plight of North Korean children and the role of the state and finds that there is room for European states and the European Union to effect change through transformative engagement with the North Korean leadership and people.

    Written on 13th April 2015