Suggested citations
AGLC4 | 인민보건법 2012 [People's Public Health Law of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (2012)] [tr Daye Gang].
Bluebook | Inminbogeonbeob 2012 [People's Public Health Law of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (2012)] translated in Law and North Korea by Daye Gang, https://www.lawandnorthkorea.com/.
Adopted on April 3, Juche 69 (1980), as Law No. 5 of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly
Amended and supplemented on March 4, Juche 88 (1999), as Directive No. 488 of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly
Amended and supplemented on February 1, Juche 90 (2001), as Directive No. 2054 of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly
Amended and supplemented on August 19, Juche 97 (2008), as Directive No. 2841 of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly
Amended and supplemented on April 3, Juche 101 (2012), as Directive No. 2303 of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly
CHAPTER I. BASIC PRINCIPLES OF PEOPLE’S PUBLIC HEALTH
Article 1 (Nature of people’s public health work)
People’s public health work in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is worthwhile and honourable work to protect the lives of people who are the owners of nature and society and the most precious people in the world, and to promote their health so they can actively serve in the performance of socialist feats.
Article 2 (Principle of consolidation and development of results accomplished in the people’s public health sector)
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has brightly realized the desires of the century for people who seek to live healthily and long, to provide the most advanced people’s public health system so they know no concerns about treating an illness. The complete and universal free medical care executed in our country is resolutely guaranteed upon a solid independent national economy and the people-oriented public health measures of the State. The State shall further consolidate and develop universal free medical service.
Article 3 (Principle of consolidating and developing a system of preventive medicine)
The foundation of socialist medicine is preventive medicine. The State shall consolidate and develop a system of preventive medicine that embodies theories of socialist medicine in people’s public health work.
Article 4 (Principle of modernizing and scientizing preventive treatment)
The State shall develop Juche-oriented medical and scientific techniques, and shall smoothly guarantee the substantive and technical conditions and means required for people’s public health work, to ceaselessly modernize and scientize preventative treatment work.
Article 5 (Principle of planned training of public health workers)
The State shall train public health workers in a planned way and shall ceaselessly raise their technical level to make them faithful persons in the service of the people.
Article 6 (Principle of guidance and control of people’s public health work)
Strengthening guidance and control over people’s public health work is an important guarantee to further consolidate people’s public health work and correctly implement the people’s public health policy of the State. The State shall strengthen guidance and control for people’s public health work in conformity with the requirements of actual development.
Article 7 (Principle of health protection for refugees)
The State shall treat without cost foreign nationals who have been exiled after struggling for peace and democracy, national independence and socialism, and scientific and cultural freedom, and their children, and shall look after their health.
Article 8 (Exchange and cooperation in the public health field)
The State shall develop exchange and cooperation in the public health field with other countries and international organizations.
CHAPTER II. COMPLETE AND UNIVERSAL FREE MEDICAL CARE
Article 9 (Right to free medical treatment)
The State shall give the benefits of complete free medical treatment to all citizens. All citizens including labourers, peasants, and working intellectuals have the entitlement to free medical care.
Article 10 (Content of free medical treatment)
The content of free medical services is as follows.
1. Medicine given to patients by medical institutions, including to outpatients, shall all be free.
2. All labour for patient treatment shall be free, including diagnosis, medical tests, treatment, surgery, medical visits, admissions, and meals.
3. Nursing services for workers shall be free, and travel expenses for recovery shall be borne by the State or by social, cooperative organizations.
4. Childbirth services shall be free.
5. Preventive medical services such as health examinations, health consultations, and preventive vaccines shall be free.
Article 11 (Protection of health of women and children)
The State shall pay deep attention to the health protection of women and children. The State shall encourage women to give birth to and raise many children, and shall give special benefits to women who give birth to, and raise, several children at once, and their children.
Article 12 (Health management of revolutionary fighters, the families of revolutionary and patriotic martyrs, families of socialist patriotic victims, heroes, war veterans, soldiers disabled on duty, and the families of soldiers of the People's Army)
The State shall pay special attention to the health management of revolutionary fighters, the families of revolutionary and patriotic martyrs, soldiers disabled on duty, and the families of soldiers of the People's Army.
Article 13 (Health protection of people who have lost labour capacity, children without any other source of help, chronic patients, and aged patients)
The State shall responsibly look after people who are no longer able to work, children without people to look after them, chronic patients, and aged patients so that the benefits of free medical treatment are well allocated.
Article 14 (Guarantee of food, subsidies, distribution portions to patients, perinatal women, and their dependent families)
Patients and women who have received maternity leave, and their dependent families, shall be given food, subsidies, and distribution portions. In these cases, the expenses of food, subsidies, and distribution portions shall be borne by the State and by social, cooperative organizations.
Article 15 (Placement of medical services networks, specialization of medical services)
The State shall rationally place people’s hospitals and clinics in cities, farming areas, factories, enterprises, fishing villages, and forest and mountain villages, and manage them in a modern way, shall install specialist hospitals and specialist sanatoria including maternity hospitals and paediatric hospitals in different places, and must ceaselessly raise the specialization level of medical services, so that people can receive treatment without inconvenience whenever and in any place.
Article 16 (Traditional medicine)
The State shall develop traditional medicine, which is an outstanding traditional treatment method of our people, to extend traditional medical networks, and must extensively accept traditional treatment methods founded in modern medical diagnosis by medical institutions.
Article 17 (Recovery treatment)
The State shall construct many modern sanatoria in thermal springs, mineral water zones, and zones where the climate is good so that people can better receive the benefits of recovery treatment with natural factors.
CHAPTER III. HEALTH PROTECTION THROUGH PREVENTIVE MEDICINE
Article 18 (Requirement to place preponderant strength in prevention)
The State shall consider it an important duty of its activities to adopt measures in advance so that people do not become ill, and shall place preponderant strength in prevention.
Article 19 (Hygiene publicity and education)
Institutions, enterprises and organizations, including public health institutions, shall strengthen hygiene publicity work and education work, so that people themselves willingly participate in hygiene cultural work, scientifically protect and manage health, and shall prevent illness.
Article 20 (Living culture, production culture)
Managing and protecting the living environment in a culturally hygienic way, and assuring safe working conditions, is important content for preventive medicine. Institutions, enterprises, organizations and citizens shall strictly keep hygiene norms determined by the State, shall strongly open up hygiene cultural work through a whole-masses movement to cleanly manage streets, villages, families, and workplaces, and must thoroughly adopt living culture and production culture.
Article 21 (Construction and management of homes, cultural facilities and amenities, and public facilities)
Institutions, enterprises and organizations shall place and construct homes, cultural facilities and amenities, and public facilities in conformity with hygienic requirements, and must manage them well.
Article 22 (Prevention of pollution)
The State shall prevent the phenomenon of pollution in all sectors of the national economy to protect the living environment. Institutions, enterprises and organizations shall plant many roadside trees and green areas, and must ensure that the air, streams, and land is not polluted by things such as many kinds of harmful gases or harmful substances.
Article 23 (Prevention of industrial diseases)
Institutions, enterprises and organizations shall guarantee labour protection supplies and hygiene protection kits including nutritional supplements, and shall normally do prevention work to thoroughly prevent industrial disease.
Article 24 (Production hygiene of products)
Relevant institutions, enterprises and organizations must abide strictly by the hygiene norms determined by the State in producing and handling products including food.
Article 25 (Nutrition management, hygiene management of children)
Relevant institutions, enterprises and organizations shall smoothly supply nutrition supplements required for the health and growth of children, such as vitamins and growth accelerators. Creches and kindergartens must do the nutrition management and hygiene management of children in conformity with scientific logic.
Article 26 (Popularizing sport and making it one’s daily regime)
The State shall popularize sport and ceaselessly promote the health and stamina of people. Education institutions and institutions, enterprises and organizations shall popularize sport and make it their daily regime so that students and workers can train their body to be strong and must ensure that they do not fall ill.
Article 27 (Prevention of infectious disease)
The State shall thoroughly adopt epidemic prevention measures to prevent infectious diseases in advance. Public health institutions and institutions, enterprises and organizations shall eliminate the conditions in which infectious diseases occur, shall strengthen disinfection work, and shall thoroughly adopt immunization measures for residents. The relevant authorities must strengthen quarantine work so that infectious diseases cannot come in from other countries.
Article 28 (District doctor system)
The State shall consolidate and develop a district doctor system that is an advanced medical services system for doctors to be responsible for a designated residential district, and to always go out to the district over which they have responsibility to look after the health state of residents and do preventive treatment work.
CHAPTER IV. JUCHE-ORIENTED MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC TECHNIQUES
Article 29 (Basic requirements of medical scientific research)
The central public health guidance institution, medical scientific research institutions, and relevant authorities shall conduct foundational medical scientific research so that it has good prospects and must place the prerequisite strength in resolving important scientific and technical issues in preventative treatment work.
Article 30 (Research in traditional medicine and folk medicine)
Public health institutions and medical scientific research institutions must strengthen research work to scientize traditional medicine, shall theoretically systematize traditional medicine and folk medicine and must further develop them.
Article 31 (Research of medicine and medical supplies, medical facilities, equipment)
Relevant scientific research institutions shall strengthen research work to make medicine and medical supplies that match the constitution of our people, and modern medical facilities and medical equipment, based on the newest scientific and technical results.
Article 32 (Cooperation of medical scientists and public health workers)
Public health institutions, medical scientific research institutions, and relevant authorities shall cause public health workers to extensively participate in medical scientific research, and shall strengthen the creative cooperation of medical scientists and public health workers to ceaselessly develop medical and scientific techniques.
Article 33 (Guarantee of conditions for medical scientific research)
The State shall strongly manage medical scientific research bases in the centre and regions, and must sufficiently assure the material and technical means and conditions required for scientific research.
CHAPTER V. MATERIAL GUARANTEE FOR PEOPLE’S PUBLIC HEALTH WORK
Article 34 (Development of pharmaceutical and medical equipment industry)
The State shall develop small- and medium-scale regional pharmaceutical and medical equipment industries together with large-scale central pharmaceutical and medical equipment industries, based on the foundations of an independent national economy
Article 35
Relevant institutions, enterprises and organizations must assure the production of medicine and medical supplies, medical equipment, and medical consumables in a planned way, in conformity with the requirements of people’s public health work development.
Article 36 (Guarantee of quality of medicine, medical tools and materials)
Relevant institutions, enterprises and organizations shall specialize in the production of medicine and medical supplies, medical equipment, and medical consumables, shall ceaselessly raise their quality, and must assure the cultural character of the packaging.
Article 37 (Cultivation and gathering of medicinal herbs)
Central public health guidance institutions and relevant institutions, enterprises and organizations shall strongly manage traditional medicine production bases, and must increase traditional medicine production. Relevant institutions, enterprises and organizations shall protect and increase medicinal herb resources, and must cultivate and gather them in a planned way. In cases where medicinal herbs are sought to be taken out to other countries, the approval of the central traditional medicine production guidance institution must be received.
Article 38 (Guarantee of demand for mineral water)
Relevant institutions and enterprises must manage mineral water production facilities in a modern way in mineral waters of renown, and must assure the demands of the people for mineral water.
CHAPTER VI. PUBLIC HEALTH INSTITUTIONS AND PUBLIC HEALTH WORKERS
Article 39 (Nature of public health institutions)
Public health institutions in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are people-oriented public health institutions that protect the life and health of people, who are the owners of the State and society, and that promote their health, and assure a happy standard of life and their satisfactory societal activities.
Article 40 (Classification of public health institutions)
Public health institutions include preventive treatment institutions, medicine and medical supplies supply institutions, and medicine and medical supplies certification institutions such as hospitals, clinics, sanatoria, hygiene and epidemic prevention clinics, and quarantine stations.
Article 41 (Duty of public health workers)
Public health workers in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are the engineers of human lives so that people can have healthy bodies and actively participate in the building of socialism, and are honourable revolutionaries. Public health workers shall have high honour and responsibility about their duties and must become the faithful servants of the people who dedicate all things to the work of protecting and promoting the life and health of the people.
Article 42 (Devotion of public health workers for patients)
Public health workers shall treat patients with kindness and must treat them with every wisdom and all devotion.
Article 43 (Dissemination of public health and hygiene knowledge)
Public health workers shall extensively disseminate knowledge about public health and hygiene using many kinds of forms and methods so that people have good commonsense knowledge about hygiene and health.
Article 44 (Raising level of scientific techniques of public health workers)
Public health workers shall ceaselessly raise their knowledge level on scientific techniques, shall strengthen the collective consultation system of medical activities, and must abide strictly by the designated technical regulations behavioural rules.
Article 45 (State benefits for public health workers)
Public health workers who protect the life and health of people shall receive the high respect and love of the people. The State shall confer titles of honour on public health workers who have rendered distinguished service in people’s public health work, and shall grant them different benefits.
CHAPTER VII. GUIDANCE AND CONTROL OVER PEOPLE’S PUBLIC HEALTH WORK
Article 46 (Basic requirements of guidance for people’s public health work)
Guidance for people’s public health work shall be done by the central public health guidance institution under the standardized guidance of the Cabinet. Central public health guidance institutions shall correctly adopt a guidance system for people’s public health work to normally command and guide people’s public health work for the whole country.
Article 47 (Duties of public health guidance institutions and local political institutions)
Public health guidance institutions and local political institutions must discover and guide people’s public health work so that the benefits of people-oriented public health measures of the State can be correctly allocated to the people.
Article 48 (Guarantee of conditions for people’s public health work)
State planning institutions, labour administration institutions, resources supply institutions, chemical industry institutions, and financial banking institutions must assure in time the labour, facilities, resources, and funds required for people’s public health work.
Article 49 (Popularizing public health and hygiene work)
People’s public health work is work of the whole of the State and society. Institutions, enterprises, organizations and citizens shall frugally manage streets, villages, families and workplaces in a culturally hygienic way, and must actively participate in the work of promoting people’s health.
Article 50 (Supervision and control for people’s public health work)
Supervision and control for people’s public health work shall be done by public health guidance institutions, local political institutions, and relevant supervision and control institutions. Public health guidance institutions, local political institutions, and relevant supervision and control institutions must strictly supervise and control the state of the implementation of the people’s public health policy of the State.
Article 51 (Administrative or criminal responsibility)
Responsible workers of institutions, enterprises and organizations and individual citizens who have caused grave consequences to people’s public health work in violation of this law, administrative or criminal responsibility shall be imposed depending on the gravity.
Last updated 7 October 2020