A teacher takes the temperature of students at a primary school in Pyongyang. Image: AP/ file
The detection of thousands of possible cases of the infectious variant of omicron in North Korea draw a potential catastrophe in a poor country did not give a vaccine and that, in addition to the health implications, can have serious consequences on food, economic or geostrategic plans.
Although North Korea has 30 to 40 doctors for every 10,000 inhabitants, level similar to France or its southern neighborhas successfully deployed vaccination campaigns covering more than 90% of the population for polio or diphtheria and, at least until a decade ago, South Korea surpassed in beds per inhabitant, it was lack of equipment and medicine is the most worrying.
The poor years of the 1990s and early 2000s depleted health supplies in the provinces and there we must add the effect that international sanctions have when it comes to procuring parts to fix equipment or the months when imported from China suspended due to pandemic.
Kim Jong-Un wearing a mask appears on televisions in Tokyo. Photo: AP
“The situation it’s bad. The most urgent thing is the UN and the international community donate humanitarian aid including medications to treat covid symptoms, antivirals, in addition to vaccinations and the necessary infrastructure for cold chains; from trucks to fuel for transportation and to generate electricity, ”said Lina Yoon, North Korea researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW).
Vaccines
North Korea has refused nearly five million vaccines of AstraZeneca and Sinovac offered by COVAX, apparently due to the regime’s refusal allow staff to enter the country to advise on cold chains.
Another possibility promoted by some experts is North Korea, which has made self-sufficiency a saying, I don’t want to rely on anyone nor show people that it cannot solve this situation alone.
Someone is disinfecting products in Pyongyang. Photo: AP
Although it was not made public in a big way, the regime said so last year makes its own vaccine without offering further details since then.
Media outlets with contacts within the country confirm that North Korean scientists will try to apply a kind of “reverse engineering” to vaccine samples obtained in China and Russia, while various other laboratories. North Korean hacker attack.
quarantine systems
many wonder how the virus got into the country after more than two years of implementing a system that prevents the entry of anyone – even North Koreans – from abroad, doubling down border fences or giving command to fire anyone approaching the divide, whether from the North Korean side or from China, Russia or South Korea.
The absence of NGOs and observers on the ground makes it impossible to know to what extent the impact of these measures on illegal cross border tradea major part of the economy in the north of the country, but it is very possible that some merchandise dealer the source of the omicron spread.
A woman disinfects a food store in the North Korean capital. Photo: AP
Another possible option is for people without symptoms to participate permitted trade routes with China (railroad and high seas) ended up delivering the infectious variant despite the strictness of the system for the entry of imported products, indicating disinfect the products and store them for several weeks or a month’s quarantine for sailors before they can disembark.
In any case, it is worrying that in the face of current outbreaks, the regime, which has prompted the closure of every “city and county”, will further restrict an existing system of prevention. very strict and the economic consequences it could have for a country that depends on its purchases from China.
economy and food
Omicron detection in North Korea it comes at a bad time for two reasons, starting since May-June is the main window for planting rice, an important campaign for the country’s pantry that suggests, as Yoon recalls, the mobilization of all over 14 years on farms for a month, which could be affected by lockdowns.
The country too throughout the “borigae” (“the slope of the barley”), spring period of greatest scarcity since the crops harvested in autumn and winter are already finishing and it is still early to harvest barley or wheat.
North Koreans with masks, in front of Pyongyang train station. Photo: Reuters
Large-scale locking can also do a lot of damage to that the north korean economy was devastatedmany of them rely on self -employment activities because they do not receive food aid from the State, and in this context we must add the fact that this is the third year of the pandemic closure ”and may have already been spent by people their accumulations, “Yoon added.
What is North Korea’s strategy?
The moment chosen to announce the appearance of infections – the regime says that outbreaks started in mid -Aprilbut waited until now to report it, just a week before US President Joe Biden visited South Korea. gives analysts a pause.
Many point to the possible political motivations at the time the regime was also conducting a record number of weapon trials and preparation of a new nuclear test.
A South Korean looks at North Korea, the most secretive country in the world. Photo: AP
However, the ultimate goal seems more difficult to clarify, especially regarding whether or not to receive – after more than two years of declining shipments – humanitarian aid. more needed than ever and that the international community is willing to export.
On the one hand, receiving this assistance, in addition to saving many lives and the economy, has created a favorable climate for continue the conversation in Washingtonalthough on the other hand, having a way for the pandemic to come from outside would mean for the regime to admit its failure to the public and end the border closures that served Kim Jong-un to strengthen the physical and ideological coercion of the population.
The author is a journalist for EFE
Source: Clarin
