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Doctor prepares for era of inter-Korean medical exchanges

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By Kim Bo-eun

Kim Young-hoon
Kim Young-hoon
Kim Young-hoon, 61, performed pacemaker surgery in Pyongyang in 2000, a time when inter-Korean exchanges flourished amid the detente under the Kim Dae-jung administration.

There he was able to see for himself the gap in medical systems and technologies between the South and North. Yet medical aid to the North was reduced significantly in the following years, as conservative presidents came to power. He has not had an opportunity to return to the North since.

Kim served as a doctor in the South for more than 30 years and has also been teaching.

"The issue of the poor medical situation in North Korea hit me again when an American friend asked me why medical personnel in South Korea were not interested in the health of North Koreans," he recalled. He then began to think about the matter again.

"It occurred to me that the paradigm of medical assistance to the North needed to change, from humanitarian assistance to training North Korean medical personnel," he said.

The Inter-Korea Foundation for Health and Medical Education was founded for this purpose in August 2015. Kim has been serving as chairman of the foundation's steering committee since.

The foundation played a role in establishing medical and dentistry departments at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. It also enabled Korea University Anam Hospital to produce the first North Korean defector surgeon in the South. According to the foundation, there are only about 60 North Korean medical personnel working in Korea, after reacquiring their licenses.

The foundation is also working on creating a dictionary for medical terms used in the South and North. The terms are so different that North Korean defectors here have trouble explaining their symptoms and understanding diagnoses.

"The gap needs to be bridged to enable medical experts of the South and North to treat patients of the South and North," Kim said.

He said an inter-Korean framework on medical exchanges is needed, such as the pact on health and medical care East and West Germany created when the country was divided. A bill to enable this has been proposed at the National Assembly and is pending.

He also said a control tower for disease outbreaks in the South and North should open somewhere along the inter-Korean border, possibly in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex.

In addition, he said the Koreas need a hotline for infectious diseases.

Yet there is little the South and North can do currently, as international sanctions limit inter-Korean exchanges. Humanitarian aid is also limited.

"It is the toughest time for North Koreans suffering from diseases," Kim said.

He said the foundation is seeking to enable North Korean medical personnel to get training in third countries.

Many wonder what the North could provide for the South in the medical sector.

"The North is advanced in the field of herbal medicine and joint studies could be productive," Kim said. "It can also provide an interesting source of data for studies, as North Koreans show different symptoms with South Koreans for the same type of illnesses, despite being the same race."

Studies on preventing diseases are also developed in the North, according to Kim.

In the meantime, much work needs to be done to prepare the Koreas for an era after barriers for medical exchange are removed.

"There are many areas we need to think about and prepare for, such as enabling South and North Koreans to keep their licenses, as well as setting up a compatible medical system in which medical personnel of both Koreas can work," Kim said.


Kim Bo-eun bkim@koreatimes.co.kr


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