South Korea was elected a member of the executive board of the World Health Organization (WHO) at its 54th general meeting held in Geneva Friday.

This means that both North and South Korea will now be on the U.N. special organization's executive board for the first time since the WHO was established in 1948.

North Korea was elected to the 32-country executive board in the 53rd WHO general meeting held last year.

South Korea joined the WHO in 1949 has now been elected to the executive board for the fourth time on Friday, counting previous elections in 1960, 1984 and 1995.

North Korea became a WHO member country in 1973 and was elected to the executive board for the second time last year, with the first election held in 1989.