Korea has a unique position due to its developmental history. Most developed societies have experts who did not necessarily directly experience the developing stage of their countries since the societies were established long before they were born; however, unlike other developed societies, Korean experts personally experienced development in their area during a resourcelimited phase in Korea. Hence, Korea has a good herd of experts who remember how to efficiently develop their technical areas with scarce and limited resources. Most experiential Korean experts are in their 60s to 80s; so, in the coming decades, their vivid individual experiences sharing with other developing world experts could be special for them and Korea.

This special issue of the Journal of Korean Medical Science (JKMS) sheds light on this unique responsibility of Korea in the development history of the world. A good number of authors joined this special issue of JKMS to share their ideation and empirical analysis results in emerging and reemerging issues in global health as well as Korea's development experience in the health sector to the global audience, who is in need of improvement in health and Korea's technical assistance.

As opposed to Korea's development history in health sector, Choe YJ et al. share the history of measles elimination with emphasis on keep-up vaccination system via schools. Choi MH et al. stress "no self-neglect" to effectively control neglected diseases. Both papers used contemporary and historical perspectives. Subramanian SV and Subramanyam MA point out more targeted pro-poor policy implementation with investment in programs for tackling root causes by uncovering insufficient nature of general economic growth for people's health gain. Hoang VM et al. stress improvement in terms of the remained catastrophic medical payment by showing the achievement and challenges in the healthcare finance of Vietnam, one of the recent good model countries of development. Lee H et al. suggest effective approaches to tackle stroke, one of the prevalent non-communicable diseases in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) via community-based measures as well as the integration of primary care and emergency care. Shiva RA et al. put forward their ideation through showing their revised measurement tool of hospital performance and governance in LMICs. Shin HY shares Korea's recent five year assistance experience for Lao People's Democratic Republic with respect to human resource development.

Four empirical analyses shed light on how to improve people's health and health equity. According to Alley AB et al., being in an unique position and having an extraordinary transition from a recipient to a donor role do not necessarily guarantee the best role model of international aid implementation; rather, they ask Korea to attempt to implement better aid governance following the Paris Declaration to be a sincere partner for the LMICs. Lee HY et al. show either equity based society or strong governance competency could improve HIV circumstances via fuzzy set analysis. Joe W et al. highlight the importance of health equity agenda even in the developing world via circumstances in India. Hoang VM et al. empirically estimate the necessary financial sources to tackle food-borne diseases in Vietnam.

As a guest editor of the global health special issue of JKMS, I wish the issue could be a good signal to show JKMS's willingness to invite core ideation for global health and Korean society's willingness to actively understand the emerging and prevalent issues of global health and to constructively debate to achieve better development aid strategies to overcome the currently insufficient nature of our actions.