Immediately after the liberation, the health care system debate was studied focusing on the orientation of the American and Soviet medical systems, roughly divided into Lee Yong-seol and Choi Eung-seok. However, the existence of people who are not explained in the American and Soviet health care systems’ orientation led to the need to reconsider the existing premise. Therefore, this study identifies the characters that were not explained in the perspective of existing studies, and reevaluates the arguments of Lee Yong-seol and Choi Eung-seok.
This paper raises the following questions: First, what is the background of the policy orientation that Lee Yong-seol and Choi Eung-seok had? Second, if there are people who made different arguments from Lee Yong-seol and Choi Eung-seok, what direction did they set and argue? third, how the orientations of Lee Yong-seol and Choi Eung-seok and etc. converge into the answer to the Joint Soviet-American Commission?
In response to theses questions, this study confirms the following: first, Lee Yong-seol’s and Choi Eung-seok’s health care policies were established based on realism and empiricism. As a policyholder, Lee Yong-seol emphasized withholding medical state administration and raising the level of medical education and medical systems according to the condition at that time, although the American system was mobilized by Lee as the basis for his judgment and administrative assets. On the other hand, Choi Eung-seok aimed for a Soviet-style systems in health care but this was realistically put on hold. Choi insisted on the establishment of the Medical Service Associations and rural cooperative hospitals that appeared in Japan’s medical socialization movement. In summary, immediately after the liberation, Lee Yong-seol’s and Choi Eung-seok’s policy arguments were based on policies that could be implemented in Korea, and the American system and Soviet system served as criteria for the policy resources.
Second, Jeong Gu-chung and Kim Yeon-ju show that the topography of the health care debate immediately after the liberation was not represented only by Lee Yong-seol and Choi Eung-seok. Both Jeong and Kim were consequently led to medical socialization, which was the implementation of a health care system that encompasses social reform, but the context was different. Jeong drew the hierarchy of the health care system, which peaked in the United States, from the perspective of social evolution based on his eugenics, but the representation suitable for Korea was the Soviet model absorbed into his understanding. On the contrary, Kim argued that representations suitable for Korea should be found in Korea. As national medical care, Kim’s idea aimed at a medical state administration that provides equal opportunities for all Koreans.
Third, the aspect of convergence to the Joint Soviet-American Commission reply proposal was complicated. Among the policies of Lee Yong-seol, the promotion of missionary medical institutions and the gradual planning of medical institutions converged into the three organizations’ proposal, and Choi Eung-seok’s policy was almost the same as that of the Democracy National Front and the South Korean Labor Party. However, the medical system of Japan, the colonial home country, appears to have been based on Lee Gap-soo, chairman of the Korean Medical Association in the colonial period, and the plan was in line with the use of the union system of the left-wing organizations’ proposal in the south. It was in accordance with a common task to expand health care from colonial conditions to different status.

Born in Pyongyang in 1914, Choe Ung-sok was a physician who lived through the Japanese colonial era (1910-1945), rule by the United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK; 1945-1948), and national division (1948). Influenced by socialism and social hygiene/social medicine during his studies in Japan, he played the role of representing the socialist camp in the discussions related to the construction of a heath care system immediately following the Liberation (1945). His key arguments were: first, the nationalization of the medical system and the implementation of nationwide programs to eradicate diseases; second, the provision of free medical services through the expansion of social insurance; third, the reeducation of the medical personnel; fourth, the provision of social sciences education to the medical personnel and the reorganization of medicine into preventive medicine; fifth, the nationalization of pharmaceutics; sixth, the laborers' establishment of autonomous medical organs (affordable clinics, medical consumers' unions through cooperatives); and seventh, the reduction of work hours to 6-8 hours, technical improvement, respite from research, and guarantee of economic life for the medical personnel. Influenced by the medical systems of the Soviet Union and Japan, such arguments stood in opposition to the right wing's plan for the construction of a relatively passive health care system at the time but, in the end, failed to be realized in southern part of Korea under the USAMGIK. Subsequently, he defected to northern part of Korea and came to participate in the task of constructing North Korea's health care system. Choe's life and design for a health care system provide examples through which one can confirm the nature of social hygiene/social medicine both during the Japanese colonial era and before and after the Liberation and the contents of the design related to a health care system as held by the socialist faction. In addition, they show that, immediately after the Liberation, there existed a broad spectrum of imagination and arguments concerning the desirable health care system. Following the division of the Korean Peninsula, South Korea witnessed the instatement of a regime that established anti-communism as the state policy and the strong influence of the United States in politics, economy, and culture. The consequent frustration of Choe's design for a health care system and his defection to North Korea frustrated the creation of a National Heath Service (NHS) in South Korea, reinforced the tendency to view NHS and social insurance as "socialist" or "communist" methods, and led to the restriction of the scope of subsequent discussions related to health care system. In conclusion, the course of Choe's life and thought went beyond the life of an individual during a period in which diverse ideologies collided through the Japanese colonial era, Liberation, and national division and symbolically demonstrates one important path of the process of constructing a health care system on the Korean Peninsula.
Delivery of Health Care/*history ; Democratic People's Republic of Korea ; History, 20th Century ; Physicians/*history ; *Politics ; Republic of Korea

This study focused on the socialist camp's North Korean medical support and its effects on North Korean medical field from liberation to 1958. Except for the Soviet assistance from liberation to the Korean War, existing studies mainly have paid attention to the ‘autonomous’ growth of the North Korean medical field. The studies on the medical support of the Eastern European countries during the Korean War have only focused on one-sided support and neglected the interactions with the North Korean medical field. Failing in utilizing the materials produced in North Korea has led to the omission of detailed circumstances of providing support. Since the review of China's support and the North Korea-China medical exchanges has been concentrated in the period after the mid-1950s, the impacts of China's medical support on North Korea during the Korean War period and the post-war recovery period have not been taken into account. In terms of these limitations, this study examined the medical activities by the Socialist camp of the Eastern European countries in North Korea after the Korean War. The medical aid teams from Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and East Germany that came to North Korea in the wake of the Korean War continued to stay in North Korea after the war to build hospitals and train medical personnel. In the hospitals operated by these countries, cooperative medical care with North Korean medical personnel and medical technology education were conducted. Moreover, medical teams from each country in North Korea held seminars and conferences and exchanged knowledge with the North Korean medical field staffs. These activities by the Socialist countries in North Korea provided the North Korean medical personnel with the opportunity to directly experience the medical technology of each country. China's support was crucial to North Korea's ‘rediscovery’ of Korean medicine in the mid-1950s. After the Korean War, North Korea began to apply the Chinese-Western medicine integration policy, which was performed in China at that time, to the North Korean health care field through China's medical support and exchanges. In other words, China's emphasis on Chinese medicine and the integration of the Chinese-Western medicine were presented as one of the directions for medical development of North Korea in the 1950s, and the experiences of China in this process convinced North Korea that Korean medicine policy was appropriate. The decision-makers of the North Korean medical policies, who returned to North Korea after studying abroad in China at that time, actively introduced the experiences from China and constantly sought to learn about them. This study identified that a variety of external stimuli had complex impacts on the North Korean medical field in the gap between ‘Soviet learning’ in the late 1940s and the ‘autonomous’ medical development since the 1960s. The North Korean medical field was formed not by the unilateral or dominant influences of a single nation but by the stimulation from many nations and the various interactions in the process.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group ; Bulgaria ; China ; Congresses as Topic ; Czechoslovakia ; Delivery of Health Care ; Democratic People's Republic of Korea ; Education ; Germany ; Humans ; Hungary ; Korean War ; Learning ; Poland ; Romania ; USSR

This study investigates the development of military medicine during the Korean War, with a focus on the role of the Medical Field Service School and training programs in the United States. It also explores the nuanced acceptance of American medicine by South Korean doctors. Military surgeon education and training emerged as pivotal catalysts, initiating a qualitative transformation in South Korean medicine and serving as a catalyst for the advancement of modern medical practices. Military surgeon education went beyond imparting military knowledge to civilian doctors; it also acted as a vehicle for disseminating fundamental medical knowledge essential for the progress of Korean medicine. Noteworthy is the strategic selection of exceptional military surgeons for overseas training, serving as a vital link for the assimilation of ‘advanced medicine’ across diverse medical domains. Contrary to unilateral acceptance, South Korean doctors embraced American medicine based on subjective judgments aligned with the specific needs of South Korean medicine. Acknowledging American medical knowledge and technology through the Medical Field Service School and U.S. training, military surgeons refrained from mere praise, recognizing the substantial gaps between South Korean and American military medicine. Beyond material achievements, South Korean military surgeons also discerned and valued the spiritual legacy of American medicine. These military surgeons actively determined the essential medical majors for South Korea, introducing cutting-edge medical technology, and leveraging relationships with U.S. military surgeons to facilitate opportunities for themselves and their students to study abroad. This proactive approach highlights the independent thought processes of South Korean military surgeons, addressing both material and spiritual needs and serving as internal driving forces for the development of South Korean medicine.