In Munsu area of Pyongyang, there appeared the Ryugyong Dental Hospital and the Okryu Children's Hospital, which are equipped with up-to-date facilities for medical treatment and researches. And a vitamin-C plant was built on the bank of the Taedong River.

Typical of the achievements is the expansion of distance surgery aid network throughout the country, a progress in telemedicine service. The service was highly admired by the participants in the WHO South-East Asia Regional Technical Consultation on Telemedicine held in Pyongyang on July 30-August 1.

Stem cell implantation was successfully applied to the treatment of intractable diseases like caput femoris aseptic necrosis and woman's diseases.

The Breast Tumour Institute under the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital has achieved successes in earlier detection and cure of breast cancer and mastopathy, while many local hospitals considerably increased the rate of painless childbirth.

Thousands of cataract cases underwent surgical operation with success.

Various kinds of preventive inoculations, including primaquine vaccination, have been conducted in favor of local people throughout the country.

A big success was made in manufacturing traditional medicines on an extractive and scientific basis at numbers of Koryo medicine-processing factories, all of them overfulfilled their yearly assignments.

Abdominal diagnostic ultrasound instrumentation and other medical instruments were produced to prove effective at healthcare institutions.

This year saw the holding of the 15th symposium on medical science with attendance of medical scientists from home and abroad and the 15th national exhibition of scientific and technological achievements in health service, which were largely conducive to developing the nation's medical science.