Republic of Korea was admitted to the WHO as a member during its second Congress held at Rome in 1949. The WHO meets each year in a congress to study the world health problems and it now provides world-wide service which became a fundamental instrument in maintaining and promoting the sanitation and health of the world today. Its major functions are the adoption of the international sanitary regulations concerning prevention of epidemics and quanantine, classification of diseases and causes of death, standardization of purity and virtue of medicines, exchange of information, and population problem.

The WHO has contributed greatly for the health and welfare of the mankind during the past 19 years. The organization now enjoys as large membership as 125 countries including Korea and it is about to be housed in a new headquarters building with its renewed determination to serve all the mankind even more actively as well as extensively.