4. Summary

With the end of the Second World War, the international community sought a new international order and established the United Nations to promote peace and stability. Nevertheless, the Cold War soon divided the world into two camps – the capitalist camp led by the United States and Western Europe, and the communist camp led by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Eastern Europe and the People’s Republic of China. In 1948, WHO was founded, an international organization focused on health issues. Korea celebrated its liberation from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, with the end of the Second World War. However, the country suffered a chaotic period as a result of the Cold War, with the Korean Peninsula divided into a communist north and democratic, capitalist south, which eventually led to a bloody and devastating three-year Korean War. Despite dire health and economic conditions, reconstruction efforts in the Republic of Korea slowly laid the foundation for an effective national health system.

Even before the formal formation of a sovereign government, officials in what was to become the Republic of Korea actively pursued WHO membership by dispatching observers to international health meetings. The nation officially joined WHO on 17 August 1949, becoming a Member State of the Western Pacific Region. On 1 September 1951, WHO and the Government of the Republic of Korea concluded a basic agreement that clarified the roles and responsibilities of each party for the development of health services in the Republic of Korea.

In 1952, I.C. Fang, the first WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific, visited the Republic of Korea to assess the health situation, form a health advisory group jointly with UNKRA and plan a public health centre revitalization project, which was proposed to the Government. In addition, Fang ensured that WHO provided the Government with support on policy and technical issues, as well as capacity-building necessary to establish the foundation for a national public health system. Actions included a proposal for the tuberculosis control programme (1953), support for strengthening the National Institute of Health (1955–1957), a proposal for malaria infection research and a malaria elimination programme (1958), support for clonorchiasis and paragonimiasis research and enhanced human resources in those areas (1958–1960), the provision of advisers and capacity-building in human resources for MCH (1950–1959), and support for a leprosy control project (1960).

ho /Jean Mohr © W

Q Kim Yong-shik of the Republic of Korea addressed the Twelfth World Health Assembly in Geneva in May 1959, following the presentation of the WHO Director-General’s report.