U.S. Charity Aids North Korea’s Fight With Tuberculosis

An American aid group is stepping up its work to beat back an epidemic of drug-resistant tuberculosis in North Korea, cooperating with doctors in the isolated, authoritarian country, the Associated Press reports. The Washington-based Eugene Bell Foundation brings high-end medical equipment and drugs twice a year to bolster antiquated facilities in North Korea, where TB has taken root among a population weakened by malnutrition.

The foundation, which is Christian-based but does not proselytize, began working in North Korea in the 1990s, delivering food aid during a famine. The Pyongyang regime is intolerant of religion and has clashed with Washington over missile tests and detentions of Western visitors. “Our goals are aligned” on health matters, said John Rogers, the foundation’s executive director. “Their agenda and our agenda is to save the lives of these people and put a stop to this curable, deadly disease.”