COVID – A catastrophic situation on the horizon for North Korea? Pyongyang announced its first death from Covid-19 this Friday, May 13, saying the virus had already spread across the country, a “fever” that the official KCNA says has “been explosive since late April.” spread across the country” news agency said.
North Korea has previously boasted of its ability to contain the virus and has not reported a single confirmed case of Covid-19 to the World Health Organization. The country was one of the first to close its borders in January 2020 after the virus emerged in neighboring China and its strict isolation policy initially appeared to have kept the virus at bay for two years, officials said. A claim regularly questioned by several experts.
Lina Yoon, senior researcher for Korea at Human Rights Watch, quoted by The Guardian, said the regime’s admission of this surge in the virus in the country is “extremely worrying.” “The public health situation must be serious,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul. An outbreak of Covid-19 could indeed prove disastrous for North Korea.
One of the worst health systems in the world
First, the healthcare system is officially one of the worst in the world, ranking 193rd out of 195 countries according to a 2021 survey by Johns Hopkins University. Health care is free for everyone, authorities say, but NGOs say people have long been doing so to pay for basic medical services, usually in the form of cigarettes or alcohol.
Patients’ families are forced to buy drugs on the black market, and doctors are forced to secretly provide care to make a living, says Sokeel Park of North Korea’s Liberty organization.
“Doctors’ income is certainly not low by North Korean standards, but even then it is difficult to buy a kilo of rice,” researcher Choi Jung-hun told AFP.
There are no hospitals with intensive care units in rural areas or small towns, where the majority of the country’s 25 million people live, adds this defector, who worked as a doctor in the north. According to the researchers, the country also does not have quarantine centers equipped with negative pressure systems or cold storage systems required for the distribution of mRNA vaccines.
An unvaccinated population…
Citing its draconian measures against the Covid, Pyongyang has apparently considered there is no need to vaccinate its population.
Last year, the country turned down an offer of three million doses of Chinese vaccines, proposing to distribute them to “countries that need them most.” He also rejected an offer from Russia and the AstraZeneca vaccine offered under the WHO’s Covax program.
In recent hours, President Yoon Suk-yeol’s new government in South Korea has offered to send vaccines to the north, but admitted it has not yet discussed this with Pyongyang. According to the WHO, North Korea and Eritrea are the only countries that have not started a vaccination campaign.
North Korea’s failing health system would likely struggle to help people suffering from vaccine side effects, which could explain the rejection of vaccine donations, experts say.
… And unable to fight the virus
Finally, information on the health of the population is patchy, but the World Health Organization said in 2018 that non-communicable diseases such as diabetes are responsible for 84% of North Korea’s deaths.
In addition, there is widespread malnutrition, which was caused in particular by a “nutrition crisis” and a shortage of medicines made official by the state media last year.
“Most North Koreans are chronically malnourished,” says Lina Yoon, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, adding that after two years of border blockades, “there is hardly any medicine left.”
Malnutrition is also thought to affect the quality of a person’s immune response to vaccinations – meaning the country could also need significant food aid to make its vaccination campaign a success.
“Most North Koreans suffer from chronic malnutrition and are not vaccinated, there is practically no medicine left in the country and the health infrastructure cannot cope with this pandemic,” summarizes Lina Yoon.
Will Pyongyang ask for international aid?
China, South Korea and the WHO immediately offered support, with the new Seoul government saying it was ready to send vaccines. But Kim Jong Un’s regime, which test-fired three banned ballistic missiles hours after announcing the first Covid cases, appears unwilling to take the outstretched hand.
However, experts believe that soon they will have no other choice. By publicly announcing a massive outbreak in English-language media, the regime is sending an “indirect message that the North may seek vaccine help from the United States or international organizations in the future,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies .
Meanwhile, the country has said it is moving into maximum emergency prevention mode. The KCNA agency later said Kim Jong Un went to the national epidemic prevention headquarters, where he “found out about the spread of Covid-19 across the country.”
Currently, the official report, and therefore without possible verification, reports that six people have died, victims of “fever”, including one who tested positive for the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron, indicated by KCNA. “More than 350,000 people have fevers in a short period of time and at least 162,200 of them are completely cured,” the same source explained. “On May 12 alone, about 18,000 people across the country had a fever and currently 187,800 people are isolated and being treated.”
See also on The HuffPost: North Korean television does not skimp on prevention despite “zero-Covid” detection