Traditional medicine in North Korea

North Korean medicine uses everything from dried bear bile and deer antler elixir to tiger bone paste and ginseng, while traditional medicines are also used to treat serious illnesses.

Traditional medicine has been integrated into the healthcare system, so its treatments can be found everywhere, from a small hospital in a small village to a large clinic in Pyongyang. Modern and traditional therapies have long worked in tandem. North Korean doctors say many patients prefer traditional medicine to Western treatments. But it is very difficult to determine the true state of affairs in this closed and poor country, to which access is limited. North Korean defectors claim that Western drugs are indeed in short supply, and so herbal teas are being used instead.

Public spending on healthcare in a country of 24 million people is among the lowest in the world. With the United Nations Security Council imposing tough sanctions on North Korea over a third nuclear test in February, local patients could become even more dependent on traditional medicine, the effectiveness of which remains in question.

(Total 21 photos)

1 Patients wait to be given traditional medicines at the Kaesong Clinic in Pyongyang's Moranbong District on February 21, 2013.

2. Doctors take care of patients at the Pyongyang Medical College.

3. A doctor warms up a cold stethoscope to listen to a child's heart sounds at Kaesong Hospital in Pyongyang's Moranbong District.

4. A sign about the need to observe silence hangs in the corridor of a clinic in the village of Rengsan-ri, North Hwanghae province, about 40 km southeast of Pyongyang.

5. A doctor visits a patient in a ward at a clinic in Rengsan-ri village, North Hwanghae province.

6. Patients with cancer leave their room at the Breast Cancer Institute, which opened in 2012 in Pyongyang.

7. A man with severe back pain lies in the hallway of the Pyongyang Medical College before an acupuncture procedure.

8. Painting of former North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in a medical facility in Pyongyang.

9. A patient with a blood circulation problem lies in a ward at the Pyongyang Medical College.

10. An office in the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital.

11. A jar of ginseng root is on a table at the Pyongyang Medical College. Traditional medicine is used in many Asian countries, including China, Japan and South Korea, where there is no shortage of modern medicine and equipment. Despite the lack of scientific evidence on the benefits of using traditional medicine, its therapies such as massage and acupuncture (acupuncture) are now widely used in the West.

12. A bag of bear bile in the window of the Pyongyang pharmacy Man Nyon, the largest dispensary of traditional medicine "kore" in North Korea.

13. A nurse at the Pyongyang Medical College stands next to drawers containing traditional medicines.

14. Pharmacy selling traditional medicine Man Nyon in Pyongyang. North Korea began using traditional medicine along with modern therapies in the 1950s after the Korean War.

15. Bottles of deer antler elixir on a shelf in the Man Nyon pharmacy in Pyongyang.

16. Patients waiting for admission in the hallway at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital.

17. Pyongyang Medical College.

18. A doctor looks out of the window of the Kaeson clinic in Pyongyang's Moranbong district.

19. Relatives of a patient of the Pyongyang Medical College carry a blanket and other necessary things for him.

20. A woman walks down the street after a visit to the Kaesong clinic in Pyongyang.

21. A woman walks past the Man Nyon pharmacy in Pyongyang.