Health System in the DPRK

Magaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), visited the DPRK in April and spoke to the reporters in high appreciation of its public health system which would be envy of most of the developing countries. The WHO’s assistant director general Eric Laroche, too, on his visit to the country two months earlier had said that the Korean people were leading a happy life under the advantageous health system.
The health system in the DPRK itself testifies to accuracy of the comments made by high-ranking officials of the WHO.

Universal free medical service with a 60-year-long history
The universal free medical service has been in effect since January 1953 in the DPRK.
It is in the limelight of the world community not only for its long history but for the precedence it gives to protection and improvement of life and health of the people above the economic calculation or interests. That is what marks it off from those based on social wealth and material guarantees found in other countries. Noteworthy is the fact that the DPRK enforced its free medical care system when it was in the middle of the war with the US (1950-1953), that is, in the grimmest days for the country.
All the citizens of the country, irrespective of occupation, sex, age, residency, quantity and quality of the work done, are equally provided with a free medical service at state expense.
Those who have lost their working ability, chronic invalids and aged patients are given more benefits, while the health of pregnant women and children are under special care of the state.
Its free medical service is perfect and thorough in content. All services are free, including treatment for both outpatients and inpatients, sick calls, diagnosis, laboratory tests, function diagnosis, operations, meals at hospitals, etc. Assistance in delivery, medical checkups, preventive vaccinations, prosthetic and dental services are also free of charge. In addition, travel expenses to and from the places of recuperation are borne by the state or social cooperative organizations.
Medical services and medicines provided by medical establishments to the inpatients as well as those prescribed for the outpatients are completely free.
The enforcement of this free medical care system in the DPRK is firmly guaranteed by the Socialist Constitution, the basic law, and the Public Health Law.

Regular medical service system
The DPRK has a dense network of medical establishments like general hospital, specialized hospital, hospital or clinic, from the highest down to the lowest unit of administration like ri and dong. According to data, there are as many as 9 000 public health agencies for the population of 24 million. The country has witnessed the increase of hygienic and anti-epidemic organs by 38 times, of hospitals by 53.8 times, and of doctors and pharmacists by 322 times during the period from 1946 to 2006.
Already in the 1970s it ranked in the advanced countries in terms of the number of doctors, medical facilities and beds for every 1 000 people.
Recently it has set up a nationwide on-line medical service system, making it possible to conduct medical treatment and health care of the people more satisfactorily and promptly.
A lot of recuperation centers making wide use of such natural treatment factors as spas, mineral waters and mud have been built across the country.
Hundreds of thousands of people have received medical services in such places for the past decade as of 2008.
Pharmaceutical and medical appliances factories managed by the central and local authorities, colleges at all levels for training medical workers, retraining courses for doctors, medical science research institutes provide the universal, free medical care system of the country with sound material and technical support.

Unique section-doctor system
Worthy of special note in the health care system in the DPRK is its section-doctor system for the households.
Its health care system has doctors assigned to certain production units and residential quarters, after taking into account all aspects required for the service such as the number of residents and their health condition, hygienic and sanitary state, doctors’ abilities and amount of their work.
Doctors always go among the residents under charge to familiarize themselves with the details of their life, including preferences for food and sanitary state both at home and work, and offer prophylactic treatment accordingly.
From the first day of birth every resident has his or her own health register, which will tag along whenever the resident changes home.
The household doctor is, as a matter of fact, in charge of the health register. It proves that everybody has his or her own family doctor in his or her lifetime.

Thoroughgoing prophylactic medical policy
The DPRK, which regards that socialist medicine is in essence prophylactic medicine, pays special attention to hygienic and anti-epidemic work, medical checkups and preventive vaccinations in order to prevent the people from falling ill.
Medical workers vigorously conduct hygienic publicity campaigns among the people to broaden their knowledge and information on hygiene, while ensuring that cities and villages are provided adequately with hygienic conditions.
They are also taking possible measures for preventive treatment by eradicating the causes of various epidemics and diseases.
All Koreans are obliged to have a routine medical check-up under the unified plan of the state and also get all sorts of vaccinations. Children in particular, should be checked up and vaccinated on scores of occasions from birth to adulthood. In the course of this various illnesses are detected early enough to be treated in time.
The law on environmental protection ensures that pollution is completely prevented and all living and working conditions are turned in favor of the people’s health.
It was reported that a newly built cement factory had laid out 40% of its whole construction expenses for its dust cleaning equipment.
The fact that the DPRK had not been affected in the slightest by the AIDS, SARS and bird’s flu that threatened the lives of the world community in recent years, is a clear evidence of the great might of the prophylactic medical policy administered in the country.

 Greetings on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Korea.
With Korea's liberation the people gained a new independent and creative
life free from the colonial slavery of Japanese imperialism.

Korea's liberation was due to the 20 year long armed struggle led by the
great leader President Kim Il Sung,a gifted military strategist and
ever victorious iron willed brilliant commander.His protean guerrilla
tactics smashed Japanese imperialism.The anti Japanese armed struggle was
a model for anti colonial anti imperialist struggles.

ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF SONGUN POLITICS UK

The liberation of Korea broke the chains of oppression of Japanese imperialism and Korean people were no longer slaves of a foreign power.Korea’s liberation on August 15th 1945 heralded national resurrection and the beginning of  a renaissance of the the Korean nation under the banner of the Juche idea.The oppression of Japanese imperialism and feudalism was ended.The Korean people gained a new independent and creative life.They were able to live and work happily in the new Korea.
Korea’s liberation was chieved due to the 20 year old anti Japanese armed struggle waged by the Korean Peoples Revolutionary Army under the command of the great leader comrade Kim Il Sung,gifted military strategist,ever victorious iron willed brilliant commander and great red Sun of Korea.His protean tactics smashed the million strong Kwantung army of Japanese imperialism.Korea’s liberation inspired the oppressed and toiling peoples of the East in their liberation struggles against imperialism.The anti Japanese armed struggle waged under the banner of the Juche idea by the great leader comrade Kim Il Sung is a model anti imperialist anti colonial liberation struggles.The 1968 World Cultural Congress in Havana,Cuba hailed the anti Japanese armed struggle of the Korean people as a textbook of struggle.

The ASSPUK and JISGE salute the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Korea and hope one day Korean people will come to live in a reunified homeland free from imperialism.
JISGE
ASSPUK
UK KFA

Significance of Korea’s Liberation Over 60 Years Ago

Tagore’s Prophecy

The Golden Age of Asia,
Korea was a country raising its lamps,
Again the lamp will be lit,
We are waiting for it
To illuminate the East

This is a poem written by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) of India.
Korea had long ago been famous as a land of morning calm, a country with a time-honoured history of 5,000 years and outstanding cultural traditions.
The “lamp,” however, was put out by the Japanese imperialists’ occupation. It was reduced to a colony in 1905.
Under the imperialist occupation of Japan, Korea was turned literally into a land of the Middle Ages, its people finding themselves at a crossroads of life and death. The name of the country was removed from the world map.
Kim Il Sung(1912-1994), who was born at the time of national distress, set out on the road of Revolutionary struggle to reduce his country and people from misery.
Having crossed the Amnok River at the young age of thirteen with a firm determination never to return home before the country was liberated, he set about waging the revolution. Convinced from the first days of his revolutionary struggle that the masters of the Korean revolution were none other than the Korean people themselves and that when all of them rose up and fought in unity, they would defeat the Japanese imperialists and realize the country’s liberation, he closely rallied enthusiastic young people and started an anti-Japanese armed struggle.
During the 15-year struggle against Japanese imperialism, he put forward outstanding politics and lines and applied original strategies and tactics, thus leading the Korean people’s struggle for national liberation to victory. The anti-Japanese armed struggle he organized and led occupies a prominent position in the history of national liberation struggle of the colonial countries of the world.
The Korean people had to fight had to fight against Japanese imperialism that had been boasting of being the “leader of Asia” and vying with fascist Germany to bring the world under its control, they had neither backing of a state nor support from a regular armed force: they also had to obtain everything-weapons, ammunition, clothes, food and others by themselves. It was, indeed, an arduous struggle beyond imagination.
The anti-Japanese guerrilla fighter, however ,under the leadership of their commander
Kim Il Sung endowed with ardent love for the country and nation, waged a bloody struggle and devoted their all, life and blood, to the sacred war of national liberation.
Many battles, including the Pochonbo Battle in June 1937 and the Musan Area Battle in May 1939, inflicted telling blows on the ruling structure of Japanese imperialism and instilled in the hearts of the Korean people the hope of national resurrection.
At last. The Japanese imperialist were defeated and historic cause of national liberation was accomplished on August 15,1945. as Tagore prophesied, the “lamp” was lit again.
This significant day over years ago brought about a fundamental change in the destiny of the Korean people. They ,who had been suffering colonial slavery for decades, regained their freedom and liberation, and embarked on the broad road of building a new society, independent and creative. After liberation such democratic reforms as land reform, nationalization of major industries and so on were carried out in the northern half of Korea ,followed by the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on September 9, 1948, the first of its kind in the East. The DPRK has developed into a people-centred socialist state where the people have become the masters of everything serves them, a state independent in politics, self-supporting in the economy and self-reliant in defence.
Korea is now demonstrating its might as an impregnable fortress of socialism , an independent power, under the leadership of Kim Jong Il who is successfully carrying forward Kim Il Sung’s cause.
Korea ,guided by his Songun politics, has in recent years been in the limelight of the international community as a small, but big country, which fully displays its sovereignty and dignity against the highhandedness of the imperialist superpower. The Korean people are now attracting the attention of the world again as they are making endeavours to effect a new revolutionary surge to widely open the gate of great, prosperous and powerful socialist state in 2012,when they will be greeting the centennial birth anniversary of Kim Il Sung.
The progressive people across the world admire and respect Korea, in which people have become its masters, which is strong in the principle of independence, and which is achieving prosperity.
Tagore’s prophecy has come true-Korea has become a light “to illuminate the East.”

Leader and Guards Unit

Korea leader Kim Jong Il started his Songun-based leadership with his inspection of the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105 Guards Tank Division of the Korean People’s Army on August 25, 1960. Up to the outset of this year he has visited this guards unit scores of times.

Like Tankmen in 1950s

Inspecting this unit on August 25,25, 50 years ago, Kim Jong Il said to the commanding officer of the unit that they should fight bravely for the country and the people as the guards tankmen did during the Korean war (1950-1953)
When the United States unleashed the Korean war on June 25, 1950, the tankmen of this unit, by counteroffensive order of President Kim Il Sung ,liberated Seoul three days after the outbreak of the war. In high appreciation of the feat performed by the then 105 Tank Brigade in the battle,
Kim Il Sung promoted the brigade to the division and conferred the title of “ Seoul Guards Tank Division” on the unit.
Dumbfounded by the attack of surging tanks of the unit, the then brass hats of the Pentagon uttered troubled cried, saying that it is an attack without formalities and that surprise attacks by the tanks and the infantry from different angles and with diverse scale and forms are elusive battles quite different from the street warfare learnt from the tactics department of the US land forces. Tracing back to the world history of war, it was the infantrymen that charged into streets first to hoist the flag of victory. It can be said that the first example that the tankmen blasted their way into a city to raise the flag of victory was set by the KPA tankmen.
That day Kim Jong Il said to the commanding offensive officers that the unit should, in the future, too, wipe out the enemies as the guards tankmen had trounced aggressors mercilessly during the Korean war, in case they dare pounce upon the DPRK.

Into invincible armoured force

One day in December 1996, Kim Jong Il visited again the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105 Guards Tank Division and, in spite of the biting cold, saw the tankmen under training.
The tankmen fully demonstrated their combat readiness, driving freely their tanks on the snow-covered steep mountains despite unfavourable conditions. While carefully watching the Training of the tankmen with a special attention to the advance aped and battle array of the tanks,
Kim Jong Il gave detailed instructions on the use of tanks and their tactics in the modern warfare.
The commander of the unit was overwhelmed with surprise at his explanation as he was well versed in the tank and its tactics as much as the experts concerned.
One May day in 1999 and on April 15, 2000 he set forth tasks and ways of further strengthening and developing this guards unit.
Under his leadership the division has grown into an invincible armoured unit capable of repulsing any formidable enemy.

By dint of Songun
Kim Jong Il gave field guidance to the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105 Guards Tank Division at the outset of this year. It can be said that this is the demonstration of unshakable will of Kim Jong Il, who started his Songun-based revolutionary leadership with the inspection of this unit 50 years ago, to vigorously advance the socialist cause on the strength of Songun in the future, too.
That day,too, he saw the tankmen under training for hours despite the biting cold. Encounraged by his inspection, he tankmen drove their tanks forward like the surging waves, smashing to pieces the “enemy’s positions” with merciless firing in the fighting spirit to annihilate the enemies at a strike if they dare to invade even an inch of the land of their country.
Nothing that the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105 Guards Tank Division always played the role as a guards unit not only in the battles but in ideology, he said that socialist Korea has been able to win victory after another, surmounting all trials and challenges of history as it has such steel-like guards units as the 105 Tank Division.
The DPRK with many guards units like the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105 Guards Tank Division will demonstrate its majestic appearance by dint of Songun in the future, too.

Kim Jong Il & 50th Anniversary of Songun –based Leadership

The term “Songun-based leadership” is a word quite new to the world political history.
The Songun-based leadership of Kim Jong Il, Chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission, can be said to be a basic factor which enables such a small country to defend its sovereignty and dignity and emerge victorious, facing down the US styling itself “ a sole superpower” in the world.
His Songun-based leadership started on August 25,1960, 50 years ago, when he visited the Seoul Ryu Kyong Su 105 Guards Tank Division of the Korean People’s Army.
Attention should be paid to the fact that he gave his guidance first to the military affairs before starting his official activities( he began to work at the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on June 19, 2964). It literally means his Songun-based leadership.
The Songun-based leadership can be said to be a traditional mode of leadership in socialist Korea. President Kim Il Sung (1912-1994), father of socialist Korea, first founded a guerilla army and waged the anti-Japanese war to liberate Korea and then achieved the cause of founding the Party and the state.
Kim Jong Il has defended the sovereignty and dignity of the country and reliably secured the peace and security of the Korean peninsula and the region in Northeast Asia by dint of Songun-based leadership.
Always paying a primary attention to enhancing the politico-ideological might of the People’s Army, he ensured that political and ideological education has been intensified among service personnel so that they can fulfil their mission as the defenders of the socialist country. He has made ceaseless inspections of army units in order to boost the military and technical might of the People’s Army in every way. He advanced the line of economic construction of developing the defence on a preferential basis in order for People’s Army to be fully equipped with modern and powerful offensive and defensive means.
He also made sure that a sound habit of attaching importance to the military affairs has been fully established in the whole society and that arming all the people and fortifying the whole land have been realized more thoroughly . Thanks to his Songun-based leadership the DPRK has been turned into a more impregnable fortress.
Through his Songun-based leadership Kim Jong Il has further cemented the single-minded unity of the Korean society and brought about an eye-opening reality that this country I making a leaping forward in order to build a thriving nation.
In the closing years of the last century the Korean people suffered the severest ordeals and difficulties due to the extreme blockade and sanctions on the part of the US-led imperialist allied forces who took advantage of the collapse of socialism in East European countries and the demise of President Kim Il Sung and the natural calamities that hit the DPRK for several consecutive years.
At such a time Kim Jong Il, holding higher the banner of Songun, led the KPA soldiers to make a breakthrough in socialist construction while the country. The service personnel in charge of the construction of the Anbyon Youth Power Station gave full play to the “revolutionary soldier spirit” which is characterized by the spirit of defending their Supreme Commander at the cost of their lives and carrying out his orders and instructions unconditionally and the heroic self-sacrificing spirit of devoting their lives for the country, the people and their comrades, giving a great encouragement to the people. Emulating the “revolutionary soldier spirit”, the people have built medium- and small-sized power stations by their own efforts in different parts of the country and began to revitalize the operation of industrial establishments that had been out of business. The service personnel and the people realigned the land of the whole country into large-sized standard fields by pooling their efforts. The former inspired the latter to vigorously turn out in the drive to push back the frontiers of science and technology by building a large number of model factories provided with state-of-the-art technology. The drive for attaining the cutting-edge technology has swept the whole country, with the result that, last year alone, many industrial establishments have put their production lines on a CNC basis and a new steel-making system of using no scrap iron and coking coal has been established. At the outset of this year, vinalon began to be mass-produce, thus providing the DPRK with a more solid foundation to fling open the gate to a great, prosperous and powerful nation in 2012 that marks the centenary of birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung.
The army and the people of the DPRK have rallied more solidly around their leader thanks to Kim Jong Il’s Songun-based leadership.

STATEMENT OF UK KOREAN FRIENDSHIP ASSOCIATION

The US imperialist and beliicose fascist puppet south Korean warmongers
are going completely mad and have called more war exercises including live
firing in close proximity to the DPRK.This is an intolerable provocation
and an affront to the DPRK's sovereignity and dignity.These exercises come
hard on the heels of previous naval exercises in the east and west sea
of Korea and RIMPAC 2010.These exercises will be followed by Ulji Freedom
Guardian.
The so called "Northern Limit" of the south Korean puppets is entirely
arbitiary and bogus.The case of the Cheonan is a fabricated case.

The moves of the US imperialists to stifle the DPRK, the land of Juche and
Songun and the socialist paradise, are becoming ever more serious and
deadly and are within a millimetre of the danger line!

All friends of Korea and progressives must rally around the DPRK which is
on the frontline against imperialism and is has US imperialist guns and
nukes levelled at it almost daily.

UK KFA

Korea Today, Monthly DPRK Journal, (August 2010 issue) carries an article about the book: KOREA -THE SONGUN CITADEL

CLICK HERE

In order to combat the lies,slander and myths spread

by the imperialists about the advanced socialist puiblic health system of the DPRK we have added a page on the PYONGYANG MATERNITY HOSPITAL to the UK Songun website

http://www.uk-songun.com/index.php?p=1_144_PYONGYANG-MATERNITY-HOSPITAL

Dear friends.

We send our warm greetings of Korean Committee for Solidarity with the World People.

Warmongers of the South Korean puppet military are going to kick off direct military provocations against the DPRK in the waters around five islets in the West Sea of Korea after escalating the madcap naval exercises targeted against it in the East and West seas of Korea in the wake of the fabrication of the “Cheonan” case.

The Command of Forces of the Korean People’s Army in the western sector of the front issued on Tuesday the following notice in this connection:

The naval firing maneuvers to be staged by the above-said warmongers in the waters near Paekryong, Taehong and Yonphyong islets in August with all ground, naval and submarine attack means involved are ot simple drills but undisguised military intrusion into the inviolable territorial waters of the DPRK and reckless politically motivated provocation to preserve the illegal “northern limit line” to the last.

The anti-DPRK smear campaign started by the puppet group with the “Cheonan” case as a momentum is the unpardonable gravest provocation perpetrated by the Lee Myung Bak group of traitors in recent years but the above-said naval firing maneuvers are a direct military invasion aimed at infringing upon the DPRK’s right to self-defence.

In view of the prevailing situation, the Command of Forces of the Korean People’s Army in the western sector of the front made a decisive resolution to counter the reckless naval firing projected by the group of traitors with strong physical retaliation.

As the DPRK had already declared solemnly internally and externally, there is only the extension of the demarcation line in the West Sea of Korea fixed by the DPRK.

As regards the expected DPRK’s counteraction for self-defence, the command warns in advance all the civilian ships including fishing boats not to enter the theatre of naval firing fixed by the group of traitors in the waters close to the five islets in the West Sea of Korea.

It is the unshakable will and steadfast resolution of the army and people of the DPRK to return fire for fire.

Above is the whole of the notice.

As you might see, today the Korean Peninsula is strained to the breaking point because of the South Korean authority’s imprudent maneuvers.

Once an armed conflict possibly happens, it will give impacts to the entire Korean Peninsula and further to the entire Northeast region to finally ignite a terrible another world war.

We firmly believe that you will give constant supports and solidarity to the just cause of the Korean people in their struggle to cease and break down indiscreet warmongering maneuvers of the US and South Korean authorities and to safeguard the peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and in the world.

Best regards.

Korean Committee for Solidarity with World People