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May 8 is World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day.

The ideal of the Red Cross and Red Crescent does not assume any governmental, national and political characters. It assumes only humanitarian character of preventing and relieving the pain of human beings. 

The origin of the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement is related to war.

The movement originated in a big battle in Solferino in northern Italy in June 1859.

In the battle both sides suffered 40 000 casualties and the injured were bleeding to death with no medical assistance. At that time, Henri Dunant, a young Swiss who passed the area on a business tour, helped the wounded soldiers who had suffered a misfortune by rousing up its residents.

He later wrote a book in memory of Solferino and in it he proposed establishing humanitarian organizations which were able to assist with medical activities in all countries and concluding an international convention on protecting the people engaged in relief operations in the battlefield.

His proposal was supported in Switzerland, with the result that the “international committee for relieving wounded persons” was organized in 1863 to realize the humanitarian ideal and later it was renamed the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1876.

Red Cross organizations were formed in many countries to meet the growing demand after the First World War and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies was founded in 1919 as they felt the need to cooperate with each other and coordinate their activities more closely.

Today, Red Cross activities are vigorously conducted to protect the lives and health of the people from frequent disputes and natural disasters in different countries and regions of the world and stabilize their life.

Founded on October 18 1946, the DPRK Red Cross Society joined the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in May 1956 and is playing the role of an auxiliary organization of the DPRK government in various fields including public health, hygiene, relief work and disaster prevention.

The DPRK Red Cross Society has made every effort to improve the health and well-being of the people by thoroughly applying the people-first principle to its work.