142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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303384
Health Disparities under black market transition of health system in North Korea

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Monday, November 17, 2014 : 8:30 AM - 8:50 AM

Jiho CHA , Department of International Health (Health System), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD
In North Korea, socialist health system was centrally planned and administered by central government. But, after breakdown of centralized health system during great famine in 1990s, the decentralized and unregulated health system have been sharply expanded with formal/informal market mechanism, mainly through black market. Despite of its critical function, emerging local health system has been unilaterally suppressed by political motivation to stabilize regime in rapid political transition; and abandoned by poorly governed, fragmented, discriminative health reform in between political dilemmas of socialist and capitalist policies toward existing market function. Thus the presentation aims to describe politics of stagnating health reform in North Korea, by describing (i) health disparities in recent black marketization of health system in chronic economic isolation; and (ii) analyzing poorly governed, fragmented and discriminative health reforms in-between socialist and capitalist policies.

Given the inaccessibility to North Korea, relevant data will be gathered from i) Literature review of published and unpublished documents on the current state of marketization, population health, health risks, and health systems in North Korea; as well as ii) Secondary data analysis (including data from UN and international organizations, NGOs, and academic institutions); iii) twenties qualitative interviews with North Korean health professionals and relevant scholars and policy makers working inside and outside North Korea.

Learning Areas:

Other professions or practice related to public health
Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related laws, regulations, standards, or guidelines
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Public health or related public policy

Learning Objectives:
Discuss politics of stagnating health reform in North Korea, by describing (i) health disparities in recent black marketization of health system in chronic economic isolation; and (ii) analyzing poorly governed, fragmented and discriminative health reforms in-between socialist and capitalist policies.

Keyword(s): Politics, Privatization

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Jiho Cha, MD MSc is a humanitarian physician working for protecting North Korean Health in last 10 years through key governmental and non-governmental organizations, including (but not limited to) Human Rights Watch; Doctors Without Borders (MSF Switzerland, Mission of North Korea); MEDIPEACE;International Organization for Migration (IOM), South Korean Ministry of Unification's Settlement Support Center for the Displaced North Koreans (Hanawon) where he has been the principal or co-principal of both humanitarian operations and researches.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.