North Korean children were not vaccinated against polio for the third straight year in 2023, with key inoculations for its infants also not being properly administered, a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) showed Thursday.

The immunization coverage with the type 3 oral polio vaccine (OPV3) for North Korea stood at zero last year, unchanged from that for 2021 and 2022, according to the 2024 Expanded Program on Immunization fact sheet.

The vaccination rate with OPV3 in North Korea had stayed above 98 percent in 2014-2019 before falling to 70 percent in 2020. Since then, no vaccination against polio has been administered in North Korea.

North Korea’s BCG vaccination rate against tuberculosis also declined to 63 percent last year, down from 99 percent the previous year. In 2023, the inoculation rate against measles stood at 28 percent in the North, down from 67 percent a year earlier.

A sharp decline in the vaccination rates for North Korean children is believed to be caused by a shortage of essen
tial vaccines due to the reclusive regime’s border closure over the COVID-19 pandemic. North Korea began reopening its border with China in late August 2023.

Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho said in March that the impact of North Korean children not being properly vaccinated will become evident three to five years later.

Source: Yonhap News Agency