On Monday, NK News, a U.S. media outlet specializing in North Korean affairs, reported that traditional medicine practitioners from North Korea are working illegally in hospitals across Russia and Central Asia.
The Goldfish Clinic in Moscow has posted a resume of a North Korean doctor and an advertisement featuring him speaking with a North Korean accent on its website. The doctor, Kim Myung-soo, is introduced as a graduate of Pyongyang Medical University with over 35 years of experience as a therapist.
According to the profile published on the hospital’s website, Kim joined the clinic last year. He comes from a family with 16 generations of medical practitioners and specializes in acupuncture, pulse diagnosis, tongue diagnosis, and tumor treatment. His credentials include a Ph.D. from the North Korean National Degree Committee in 1998 and studies at the Pyongyang Medical Research Institute from 1988 to 1997.
Kim also worked in China from 2005 to 2012, initially running a hospital in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, an area with a large ethnic Korean population, before moving to a hospital in Beijing.
NK News reports that the majority of the staff at the Goldfish Clinic, established in 2021 by Russian nationals Natalia Komarova and Mark Pereberzev, are Chinese.
The report also highlights another case involving Kim In-ho, the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Biyuskir Korean Hospital in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, who is also of North Korean origin. Several doctors at Kim’s hospital are believed to be North Korean nationals, including Ko Chan-soo, Kim Hwa-sun, and Cho Myung-sam.
Shuji Sue and Maiko Takeuchi, former members of the United Nations (UN) panel monitoring sanctions enforcement against North Korea, told NK News that employing Kim, if he is indeed a North Korean national, would violate UN Security Council Resolution 2397. This resolution prohibits UN member states from hiring North Korean nationals.
Unique Kim, a researcher at the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB), explained to NK News that the expanding economic cooperation between North Korea and Russia is leading to a broader range of industries and occupations employing North Korean workers in Russia. He added that as economic ties between the two countries diversify, they’re likely to see changes in the composition of North Korean labor placements, with a probable increase in the proportion of skilled workers.