Four million vaccine doses for children and pregnant women flown to North Korea

More than 4 million vaccine doses have been flown to Pyongyang, raising hopes that North Korea is opening up to UN agencies and NGOs amid reports of a worsening health situation in the authoritarian state.

“The return of essential vaccines marks an important milestone in protecting the health and survival of children in this country,” said Roland Kupka, UNICEF Acting Representative for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, in a statement.

The vaccines include those for hepatitis B, polio, measles and tetanus, and were provided by Unicef, the World Health Organization and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Organizers say they are intended for 600,000 children and pregnant women who have not had a vaccine since the Covid-19 pandemic. They are being administered as part of a catch-up campaign in September by North Korea’s health ministry.

It comes in response to widespread calls from the US and human rights groups for North Korea, one of the world’s poorest countries, to reopen its borders to allow essential aid to be delivered.

Nearly all international aid workers had to leave during the Covid pandemic as the country closed its borders and tightened import controls. This reduced supplies of medicines and vaccines, as well as food imports, increasing malnutrition and leaving many – including newborns – vulnerable to deadly diseases such as tuberculosis and measles. Before the pandemic, nearly half the population was malnourished, and since then, several floods and typhoons have hit the country, further compromising health.

Earlier this month, the head of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, Qu Dongyu, visited North Korea to reactivate the agency’s relationship with the country and address food insecurity.

“The reopening of the border and the return of the full UNICEF team to DPR Korea will be crucial to ensure that more essential support can be provided in 2024 and that programmes can be scaled up as needed to meet the needs of children and women,” Kupka said. In 2019, UNICEF had about 13 international staff in the country.

“I feel like they are opening up again to UN agencies and NGOs,” said Nagi Shafik, who previously served as a UN public health adviser in North Korea, a country he described as “picky about their security.”

Shafik said the North Korean government may have used the pause to rethink how it wants to work with aid workers. It no longer wants to be seen as a recipient of aid, Shafik said, but more as a development partner. “They hate being dependent on other people,” he said, but are open to ideas and want to be involved in issues such as health. North Korea was elected to the WHO’s executive council last year. “They are more open than people expect,” Shafik said.

In the meantime, Kupka urged the North Korean government to facilitate the return of temporary workers “as soon as possible.”