Officially, the corona pandemic in isolated North Korea was not an issue at all. Now the government has admitted infections for the first time. Experts see great dangers for the ailing health system.
The isolated North Korea has officially confirmed cases of infection with the pathogen for the first time since the beginning of the corona pandemic more than two years ago.
According to state media, the capital Pyongyang is affected by the outbreak with the omicron subvariant BA.2. In view of the “emergency”, ruler Kim Jong Un ordered all cities and counties to be strictly sealed off to prevent the virus from spreading further. It was initially unclear how many cases there were and where those affected became infected.
North Korea reports first official corona outbreak
Experts have been warning for some time that North Korea would find it difficult to deal with an outbreak of Covid-19 due to its inadequate health system. As of Thursday, North Korea was one of the few countries in the world that had not reported a single corona infection to the World Health Organization (WHO). However, the information from the largely isolated country, according to which it had been corona-free up to now, was always doubted abroad.
At a meeting, the ruling Labor Party’s Politburo reportedly decided to move to a “maximum epidemic emergency prevention system.” Chaired by Kim, the participants discussed the “serious situation in connection with the introduction of the camouflaged Omicron variant”. The Politburo accused the responsible authorities of lax and irresponsible handling of the quarantine rules.
Kim: “A more dangerous enemy than the virus is a weak will”
Kim said he was confident that he would overcome the “unexpected situation” for his country, state media reported. “The more dangerous enemy than the vicious virus is unscientific fear, lack of faith and weak will,” he was quoted as saying.
The communist leadership in Pyongyang had closed the national borders early on because of the pandemic, which also had a strong impact on trade with China. In January this year, China initially confirmed that it would resume freight traffic with its neighboring country. According to reports in the South Korean media, cross-border iron freight traffic was suspended again at the end of April after new cases of infection in the Chinese border city of Dandong.
Source: Stern
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