From the early phase of nation-building, the North Korean Workers’ Party considered the intelligentsia as a critical part of national development. After liberation in 1945, the absolute number of intelligentsia required for socialism was insufficient. The Party allowed the old in- telligentsia trained during the Japanese colonial era, even if their family origins and ideologies were deemed problematic. This paper discusses the ideological struggle between 1956 and 1961 in the North Korean healthcare sector. From late 1956, the ideological struggle triggered by the anti-sectar- ian strife led to a change of policy toward the old intelligentsia. The ideo- logical struggle was call for change that suited the new socialist healthcare system. This paper will explore the process in which the Chollima Workteam Movement developed into a collective human remaking move- ment after 1959, which enhanced the communist culture and practices. During this period, which was decisive for formation of North Korea’s so- cialist system, North Korean doctors created a unique identity and socialist medical ethics of jeongseong (devotion). In the end, this paper will show how the policy toward the intelligentsia played out in the health and medi- cal sector during the formative years of the socialist system in North Korea.