27th July, 2010

Amputations conducted without anaesthetic, the hungry eating poisonous plants and bark, doctors paid in cigarettes.

Such are some of the findings of an Amnesty International report into the state of healthcare in North Korea. The report, The Crumbling State of Health Care in North Korea, claims the North Korean government has refused to cooperate with the international community in order to receive food aid.

This is despite not being able to feed its own people – a situation which has resulted in people mixing grass bark and poisonous plants such as wild mushrooms with their limited food supplies.

Compiled based on interviews with North Koreans and healthcare worker, the report says that as a result, has found that hospitals are barely able to function despite facing an epidemic of malnutrition while even basic hospital procedures, such as the sterilization of hyperdermic needles, are not followed.

“North Korea has failed to provide for the most basic health and survival needs of its people,” said Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Asia-Pacific. “This is especially true of those who are too poor to pay for medical care.”

According to figures from the World Health Organization, North Korea spends less than any other country on healthcare – as little as $US1 a person per year.

~ www.amnesty.org

- DAVID ADAMS