North Korea has mobilized medical students at universities across North Pyongan province to collect medicinal herbs, drafting them into a state-driven push to expand production of koryo medicine (traditional Korean herbal medicine) amid chronic shortages of modern pharmaceuticals.
A Daily NK source in North Pyongan province said Wednesday that students at Sinuiju Medical University and other health-related institutions in the province have been sent out to gather herbs since late April, with the designated “herb collection period” running through mid-May.
Medical universities and affiliated institutions maintain their own herb gardens and conduct collection drives every spring and autumn. According to the source, schools are framing the mobilization as “field practice” while cutting regular classes to send students out in large numbers to mountains and fields.
The mobilization follows a clear division of labor by year of study. Lower-year students are dispatched to forage for herbs including atractylodes, poria mushroom, achyranthes, plantain, aralia root, and mugwort. Upper-year students are tasked with tending herb plots and sorting and processing the collected material to meet required standards.
“Medical students aren’t just studying anymore,” the source said. “They’re out there digging up herbs and drying them. Every spring and autumn, the same mobilization cycle starts up, and students have started calling it ‘herb vacation.’”
Students put to work making traditional medicine
Once collected, the herbs are sent to production workshops that institutions operate nominally for educational purposes but which are used in practice to manufacture actual koryo medicine products. The workshops produce decoctions, pill formulations, and herbal syrups using plants such as mugwort and mountain ash, while also preparing medicinal liquors by steeping aralia root and tree barks in alcohol.
The source noted that educational institutions are now competing to develop novel formulations through these production activities, in line with broader state-promoted drives for institutional “innovation.”
North Korean authorities’ decision to rope in educational institutions reflects a longstanding effort to offset chronic drug shortages with domestically sourced natural remedies. It also signals the regime’s push to reduce dependence on externally supplied pharmaceuticals and establish what state media describes as a “self-reliant production system” in the public health sector.
Students, however, are not happy about it. Many have voiced frustration at spending more time foraging than receiving proper medical training.
“There’s open criticism among students that they spend more time hunting herbs than learning or practicing modern medical techniques,” the source said. “But the authorities keep insisting that koryo medicine production is a critical public health undertaking tied directly to improving people’s wellbeing, so students have no choice but to go along with it.”
Reporting from inside North Korea
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