An analysis of a database from a North Korean smartphone application shows that Pyongyang has far more medical facilities than anywhere else in the country. The analysis suggests that North Koreans in rural areas struggle to receive proper medical care.
Daily NK obtained a database file called healths.db used in the “health” app on North Korean smartphones. The file contains information about 459 medical facilities — 26 hospitals, 294 pharmacies, 42 pharmaceutical plants, 29 medical research labs and 68 sanatoriums — in North Korea’s 105 cities and counties.
The list, last updated in 2023, only includes facilities registered for app users. It can’t be considered a comprehensive list of all medical facilities in North Korea.
Still, the database makes clear that North Korea’s medical infrastructure is concentrated in Pyongyang, revealing the medical imbalance between the capital and the provinces.
The largest concentration of medical facilities is in Pyongyang’s Central District, home to 37 facilities altogether — one hospital, 28 pharmacies, six pharmaceutical plants and two medical research labs. Other capital districts with large numbers of medical facilities are Pyongchon (34), Taedonggang (32), Mangyongdae (31) and Potonggang (29).
In contrast, no hospitals or pharmacies are listed for 55 counties that represent around half of the cities and counties in the database. That confirms the stark disparity in medical infrastructure between Pyongyang and the provinces.
Capital dominates pharmaceutical production
Notably, sanatoriums are the one category of medical facility not concentrated in the capital. In fact, all the sanatoriums listed in the database are located in the provinces.
Also striking is the fact that eight districts of Pyongyang — including Jung, Pyongchon and Taedonggang — have both pharmaceutical research facilities and production facilities. Mangyongdae, in particular, hosts 11 pharmaceutical plants and three medical research labs, suggesting that the district is the center of the North Korean medical industry.
The close proximity of pharmaceutical research and production appears aimed at maximizing the efficiency of both. Having new medications produced at factories near the labs where they were developed is presumably an effort to create synergy between human and material resources, while shortening the timeframe from development to production.
In addition, the database includes the email and home addresses of facility representatives. All the emails have the domain @pt.net.kp, with “kp” being North Korea’s top-level domain, “net” signifying a network-related organization and “pt” presumably being North Korea’s Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.
