Seoul (AsiaNews/CI) – A new children’s hospital run by Korean doctors from across the peninsula is to be inaugurated in Pyongyang. The aim is to have “children from North and South grow shoulder to shoulder, with the same life chances.”

This was announced by Kwon Keun-sul, the president of a non-governmental organization called “South and North Korean Children Shoulder to Shoulder”, which has worked with the two governments and managed to set up the project thanks to donations from individuals and institutions from around the world.

The hospital will be six stories high and have 200 beds, equipped with the most modern machines for paediatric medicine. The total cost of the project is about 4.5 million euros and the structure should be ready by next June.

Part of the funds have been donated by the Unification Ministry, which had threatened to withdrawn them after the crisis sparked by the nuclear test conducted by Pyongyang on 9 October.

Kwon said: “We want to ensure that children are not divided by a militarized border. We are trying to make them grow up with the idea that they must live side by side but to do so, the children of the north must be able to grow properly. And this is the aim of our hospital.”

Choi Hye-kyong, assistant director of the group, said: “After the hospital is built, paediatricians from the south will regularly visit the hospital to train North Korean doctors and monitor hospital management.”

In order to inspect the construction of the hospital, three South Korean contractors and supervisors got permission to cross the border: they will stay in North Korea for a month, managing the critical phases of construction. For its part, Pyongyang helped by providing 300 workers who at the moment are digging the foundation of the hospital.