North Korea has vowed to provide equal health and medical services to all citizens, including free treatment, doctor's care assigned to each area, and preventive medicine, but it is suffering from a recession that began in the mid- to late 1990s and a lack of budget for arms strengthening. In particular, the COVID-19 pandemic in the early 2020s added to this difficult situation. This study criticizes the causes and effects of the Kim Jong-un administration's hasty policy errors in the COVID-19 pandemic, as North Korea's poor health care situation is due to various aspects of politics, economy, and society. This research first introduces the current status and attributes of the North Korean economy, and examines the characteristics of the North Korean health and medical treatment policy based on them. Subsequently, in terms of international cooperation in the International Health Regulations (2005), the North Korean government's COVID-19 pandemic policy is critically reviewed and the policy direction for private cooperation as a non-political means is presented in the conclusion. Finally, this paper argues that in order to effectively supplement the North Korean government's COVID-19 response policy, international solidarity and cooperation, including South Korea, should be promoted transnational, and the International Health Regulations (2005) should be revised to the International Health Law with treaty-level coercion to ensure human mobility as much as possible.