About WHO in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

DPR Korea has been a member of WHO since 1973 but the collaborative program was for many years under national execution. In 1997, a WHO Emergency and Humanitarian Action (EHA) office was established to deal with the deteriorating health and humanitarian situation in DPR Korea. The collaboration between the Government of DPR Korea and WHO has developed positively over the years and expanded after the establishment of the WHO Country Office in Pyongyang in November 2001.  A Basic Agreement for the provision of technical assistance was signed between WHO and the Government in May 1974.

From establishment, WHO has participated in the annual UN Consolidated Appeals (CAP), development of UN strategic framework and annual Needs and Priority for DPR Korea. Resources through the UN Consolidated Appeal, Gavi, Global fund, CERF, South East Asia Regional Health Emergency Fund and other funding mechanisms have been instrumental to address major humanitarian public health response such as tuberculosis, malaria, vaccine preventable diseases, emergency preparedness and response, addressing non-communicable disease, life course and strengthening systems for health and health care service delivery.

WHO has demonstrated its ability to and mobilize resources and collaborate with donors and national authorities to address some of the immediate humanitarian public health concerns. The experiences over the years proved that it is possible to effectively implement health programs in DPR Korea despite the institutional and the political constraints.

In March 2003, the first Country Cooperation Strategy (CCS) was prepared to guide the work of WHO in DPR Korea from 2004-2008. WHO work in the country was subsequently guided by the CCS 2009-2013. Present CCS is from 2014-2019.

WHO supports the public health programme in the country, based on the WHO Country Cooperation Strategy (2014–2019), which is an organizational requirement, and as guided by WHO’s Global Programme of Work (GPW) 2014–2019 and the biennial Programme Budget approved by all Member States of WHO.

Strategic Priorities as outlined in WHO Country Cooperation Strategy are:

1. Prevention and control of communicable diseases.
2. Addressing women’s and children’s health to reduce vulnerability and promote disaster risk reduction.
3. Prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases.
4. Strengthening health systems to improve service delivery.
5. WHO country presence to support sustainable national health development.

At present, WHO is in process of developing its next biennium plan (2020-21) as per the 13^th GPW 2019-2023.

As the lead technical health agency in the world, WHO’s technical, financial and operational support in DPR Korea is in line with the Organization’s mandate, and has contributed in tangible measure to prevent possible humanitarian health catastrophe in the country.

The Organization’s programmes are aligned to the United Nations Strategic Framework^[1], and under the Strategic Priority 2 on Social Development Services envisages the following:

• sustained and equitable universal health coverage with emphasis on primary health care, especially for the most vulnerable populations and those living in remote areas;
• enhanced services to address communicable and noncommunicable diseases, and maternal and childhood diseases, especially those experienced by the most vulnerable women and children;
• strengthened health emergency preparedness and response capacity.

The office at present has six international professional staff including WR, Administrative Officer and four technical staff. Number of WHO technical experts from WHO HQ, regional office and other offices, short time consultants and experts’ visits are organized and facilitated every year for training, capacity building and technical assessments, and program review.

WHO takes active part in the interagency collaboration with other UN agencies, NGOs and donors and Embassies in Pyongyang. A good cooperation between agencies has contributed to effective sharing of information and adoption of common strategies for the work of international organizations in the country.

WHO is a member of Humanitarian Country Team and co-leads Health sector working group