A Study on the Characteristics and Limitations of North Korea’s Pharmaceutical Policy

Abstract

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) has been developing a state-led socialist health care system since liberation from the Japanese colonial rule. On the foundation of the system, DPRK has pushed for “major health care policies”-free medical care, preventive medicine. In particular, as the North viewed free medical care as a communist policy where the government fully guarantees the health of laborers, it tried to prove superiority of the socialist care system through the policy. Kim li-seong emphasized the pharmaceutical industry focusing on the production and supply of pharmaceuticals as the basic material means and essential needs for free provision of medical care. However, the external environment surrounding the regime began to exacerbate in the 1960’s. North Korea chose the path of self-reliance, meaning that it would develop a socialist economy on its own. For that, it gave priority to the development of the heavy industry, which resulted in dramatic fall in investment in health care projects including pharmaceutical projects. In addition to the emphasis on self-reliance and the development of the heavy industry, its centralized planning system negatively affected the development of the pharmaceutical industry. However, what hindered the development of the pharmaceutical sector the most was the way North Korea viewed it, represented by mental stimulus. The North maintained that the “performance of treatment does not fully depend on medical theory, technology or pharmaceuticals, but ideological, mental, and moral state is critical in the treatment and prevention programs”, holding a perspective that ideological spirit can solve the problem.