Ph.D. Student, Department of Korean History, University of Seoul, Korea. Researcher, The Institute for Korean Historical studies.
Uisahak. 2020 Aug;29(2):503-535. doi: 10.13081/kjmh.2020.29.503.
North Korea's health care system during the Korean War has a significant meaning in North Korean medical history and is also an appropriate research topic for understanding North Korea's wartime system. However, previous studies on North Korean medical history has been focused on before and after the war. This study traces the formation and operation of North Korea's wartime health system to fill the gap in the literature, aiming to identify that the support of the North Korean community in China's Yanbian community was key to North Korea's wartime health system. North Korea reorganized its health care system, centered on the military, such as establishing field hospitals concurrently with the outbreak of the war. However, as time went on, the North Korean health care project began to put an emphasis on protecting the lives and health of the civilians behind the frontline. In addition to the primary need to prevent infectious diseases, the hygiene and prevention project functioned as a means to control and mobilize the public by emphasizing broad public participation. Although North Korea tried to meet the demand for a large medical personnel through short-term training, medical personnel were always in short supply during the war. During the war, it was the Korean society in Yanbian that replenished medical personnel in North Korea and provided a space for a relatively stable hospital operation. Numerous Koreans in Yanbian participated in the Korean War as nurses, paramedic staff, transfusion donors, and army surgeons for North Korea. Such large-scale participation of medical personnel in Yanbian was based on the long-established medical exchanges between Yanbian and North Korea. Koreans in Yanbian also accommodated North Korean wounded, refugees, and war orphans and provided various medical assistance to them. During the war, Yanbian was a "secure rear" capable of performing medical actions that could not be done in North Korea. This study has confirmed that North Korea's current participation in public health projects, which is a characteristic of its health care sector, has its origins in the Korean War. Moreover, it demonstrates that North Korea's medical history needs to be viewed from an East Asian perspective, including the Korean society in Yanbian, rather than a national-only perspective. The application of this view to the analysis of North Korean's health care system in other historical periods would facilitate richer discussions.
朝鲜战争时期的朝鲜医疗体系在朝鲜医学史上具有重要意义，也是了解朝鲜战时体制的适当研究课题。然而，此前对朝鲜医学史的研究主要集中在战前和战后。本研究追溯了朝鲜战时卫生系统的形成和运作，以填补文献空白，旨在确定中国延边地区朝鲜社区的支持是朝鲜战时卫生系统的关键。朝鲜以军队为中心，重新组织了医疗保健系统，如在战争爆发时同时建立野战医院。然而，随着时间的推移，朝鲜的医疗保健项目开始强调保护前线后方平民的生命和健康。除了预防传染病的基本需求外，卫生和预防项目还通过强调广泛的公众参与，成为控制和动员公众的手段。尽管朝鲜试图通过短期培训来满足对大量医务人员的需求，但战争期间医务人员总是短缺。在战争期间，正是延边的朝鲜社会为朝鲜补充了医务人员，并为相对稳定的医院运作提供了空间。延边的许多朝鲜人作为护士、辅助医务人员、输血员和朝鲜军队外科医生参加了朝鲜战争。延边如此大规模的医务人员参与是基于延边与朝鲜长期的医疗交流。延边的朝鲜人还收留了朝鲜伤员、难民和战争孤儿，并向他们提供各种医疗援助。在战争期间，延边是一个能够进行朝鲜无法进行的医疗行动的“安全后方”。本研究证实，朝鲜目前参与公共卫生项目的情况，是其医疗保健部门的一个特点，其起源于朝鲜战争。此外，它表明，朝鲜的医学史需要从东亚的角度来看待，包括延边的朝鲜社会，而不仅仅是从国家的角度来看待。将这种观点应用于分析朝鲜其他历史时期的医疗保健系统，将有助于进行更丰富的讨论。
