More than a million people have been infected with what Pyongyang calls a “fever”, according to state media, despite the fact that Kim Jong-un ordered national lockdowns to stop the spread of the disease among the population, which has not been vaccinated.
In a sign of the seriousness of the situation, Kim “strongly criticized” health officials for what he called a poor response to epidemic preventionaccording to the official KCNA news agency.
The leader ordered the army to act “to immediately stabilize the supply of medicines in the city of Pyongyang”, the capital, where the first cases of Covid-19 in North Korea were detected last week, KCNA reported.
Kim Jong-un has put himself at the forefront of this crisis, overseeing almost daily emergency Politburo meetings on the outbreak, which he has said is causing “great turmoil” in the country.
According to KCNA, the North Korean dictator said that the “orders have not been duly applied and the drugs have not been supplied to the pharmacies.”
He also criticized that pharmacies did not comply with the order to be open 24 hours a day.
North Korea has one of the worst healthcare systems in the world.with poorly equipped hospitals, few intensive care units and without drugs for the treatment of Covid-19 or the capacity to carry out massive tests, according to experts.
“When visiting a pharmacy, Kim Jong-un saw with his own eyes the shortage of medicine in North Korea,” Cheong Seong-jan, a researcher at the Sejong Institute, told AFP. “The situation could have been worse than he expected.”
State media reported that 50 people have died from Covid-19, 1,213,550 suffer from “fever” and more than half a million are under medical treatment.
North Korea has maintained a rigid lockdown against the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, though experts have said that with the presence of the Omicron variant in the region it would be a matter of time for Covid-19 to spread throughout the country.
Public criticism of Kim is a sign that the situation is bad, said Yang Moo-jin, a professor of North Korean studies at the University of Seoul.
North Korea is likely to need international help to overcome the massive wave of Omicron, Yang said, indicating that he will turn to China first, but perhaps to the United States or South Korea if the situation worsens.
North Korea has previously rejected offers of Chinese-made vaccines, but Kim Jong-un said they will “actively learn” from Beijing’s so-called “zero Covid” approach to disease management.
The new president of South Korea, Yoon Suk-yeolsaid on Monday that it “will not skimp in providing the necessary help to the North Korean people.”
“If the North Korean authorities accept, we will not spare the necessary aid, such as medicines – including vaccines against Covid-19 – medical supplies and health personnel,” he told the South Korean National Assembly.
Pyongyang has not responded to the latest official communication from Seoul detailing the offer of aid against Covid-19, according to the Unification Ministry.
Despite the public health crisis, new satellite images show that North Korea has resumed construction of a long-dormant nuclear reactor.
The United States and South Korea have warned that Kim is preparing to conduct another nuclear test, his seventh.
Source: Ambito
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