An official from the World Health Organization (WHO) says North Korea’s medical establishment is steadily improving due to a joint program the North has with South Korea.

The organization’s top humanitarian official, Eric Laroche, made the statement Thursday in Geneva after a four-day visit he made to the North late last month.

Funded by South Korea, the organization's 30-point-two-million-dollar program first began in 2006. The program has trained more than six-thousand doctors and nurses in emergency obstetric care, newborn care and child illnesses.

Laroche said that thanks to the program, the North currently has about 90-thousand household doctors who care for about 130 families each.