Healthcare Modernization: North Korea is stepping up imports of Chinese medical equipment, with hospitals and clinics in North Pyongan province seeking ultrasound machines, X-ray devices, and ECG recorders—while some purchases may be driven as much by appearance as by real maintenance capacity. Pharma Supply Chain: The same push is boosting demand for pharmaceutical packaging machinery as authorities encourage more domestic production of traditional Korean medicines and other drugs. Medicine Imports: A Russian drugmaker says it shipped nearly 20,000 packages of cardiovascular, dementia, anti-asthma, and hair-loss medicines to North Korea, worth about $74,300, ahead of a June sale. Food & Nutrition via Military Farming: In Hamhung, soldiers are being mobilized for soybean planting on military-run auxiliary farms, with planting deadlines set for the end of May and complaints that the best harvest goes to officers. Digital Training Infrastructure: A new review describes North Korea’s distance education system as a state-directed tool for workforce development and scientific training, including rapid retraining of healthcare and epidemic-prevention personnel during COVID-19.