North Korea has recently ordered provinces, cities and counties nationwide to build state-run general pharmacies, Daily NK has learned.
A source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Friday that “the government — through the Cabinet’s Ministry of Public Health — has instructed all provinces, cities and counties to build state-run general pharmacies.”
According to him, North Hamgyong Province responded by tasking the party committees of each city and county with the construction of the pharmacies, with the provincial party committee taking charge.
In ordering the construction of the state-run pharmacies under the name of the “Sept. 8 Order,” North Korea aims to bring health indexes — including average lifespan and infectious disease prevention — up to global standards by developing public health efforts based on the principle of “putting the people first,” the source explained.
North Korea has also called on local authorities to achieve the directive to provide people with a better health environment and conditions.
The government pointed out that the erstwhile practice of people using drugs without state guarantees purchased from private drug merchants after receiving a diagnosis from the hospital was an “outdated phenomenon” arising from an improperly functioning state healthcare system.
The authorities stressed that the most important issue in the state healthcare system — which has been in a state of collapse since the Arduous March — is delivering to people proper medications for the illnesses they suffer, and that government must put people at ease and enable them to take advantage of state assistance.
The source said the central government called on local authorities to “quickly and actively” push construction of state-run pharmacies since they are an “additional state program for the year,” calling all public health policy activities “vital efforts to realize and achieve the words and thoughts of Comrade Kim Jong Un.”
After the party committee of North Hamgyong Province received the so-called “Sept. 8 Order,” it ordered city and county party committees to discuss the construction of state-run pharmacies with the health department of local people’s committees.
In particular, the provincial party committee ordered major local cities such as Chongjin to take the lead over the next year and build at least one state-run pharmacy in their locales. These pharmacies will be places where people can easily purchase popular health and hygiene items and basic medications.
The source said the province has ordered Chongjin to start the ball rolling, while other cities and counties select pharmacy locations and conduct groundbreaking work by this autumn.
“However, lower-level areas are complaining that they are suddenly being hit with building pharmacies on top of the residential and factory construction they were already doing, and they don’t have the supplies or labor,” he said.
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