Chinese Government sends medical team to North Korea in 2022

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On May 13, 2022, a delegation of 13 Chinese doctors and medical technicians from Beijing arrived in Pyongyang to advise North Korean doctors on strategies to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. The Chinese health experts conducted training on the use of vaccines and testing, discussed their clinical experience with staff at four Pyongyang hospitals, and worked closely with North Korea’s National Emergency Quarantine Command. The medical team stayed at the National Academy of Sciences in Pyongyang’s Unjong district and returned to Beijing on May 29, 2022. This is the first time that North Korea has received medical assistance from abroad in more than two years since the outbreak of the COVID epidemic in early 2020. In September 2021, North Korea rejected 3 million doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine. On May 8, 2022, the DPRK acknowledged its "first-ever" COVID outbreak.