Abstract

This article examines the 1952 WHO/UNKRA health planning mission in South Korea within the broader framework of United Nations-led reconstruction after the Korean War. Three medical professionals—George MacDonald, William P. Forrest, and Walter G. Wickremesinghe—surveyed national health and medical conditions. They delivered a comprehensive report, suggesting state-driven development to rehabilitate Korea’s medical system. The report detailed important challenges and offered potential solutions encompassing all aspects of rehabilitation in the health and medical system, which were closely tied to the developmental project of Western intervention in newly independent countries after World War II. This article argues the WHO/UNKRA mission was an exercise in making society legible to the state, that is, rendering it measurable and manageable as a precondition for intervention. Situating the mission and its proposals within postwar development strategies, this article shows that meaningful state involvement required first creating standardized, visible units of administration and knowledge. These included building a medical administrative apparatus, training scientific and technical personnel, and establishing mechanisms for monitoring and managing the broader population.