Experts say the grand military parade on April 25 should serve to showcase North Korea’s strength, but the grand event to commemorate the founding of the country’s military may have triggered an “explosive” Covid-19 outbreak in the country.
North Korea yesterday announced its first confirmed death from covid-19 due to the rapid emergence of the new coronavirus, which has spread across the country “since the end of April” and where 187,000 people have been “isolated and treated” for fever. to the official KCNA news agency.
According to footage of the military parade broadcast by state television, thousands of people, without masks and without social distancing, gathered in Kim Il-sung Square in the capital Pyongyang to watch the soldiers’ military parade and applaud the weapons on display. . . .
Hong-min, a researcher at the Seoul-based Korea National Institute of Reunification, believes the current covid-19 outbreak is “closely linked to this April 25 parade.”
“More than 20,000 people prepared for the parade for two months and stayed in the capital for the opportunity to photograph Kim Jong-un,” the North Korean President said, according to the researcher.
According to him, North Korea seems to have realized the “gravity” of the situation late and only tested participants for Covid-19 when they returned to their regions.
“Organizing a military parade in front of a large crowd as the Omicron variant crashes into neighboring China demonstrates North Korea’s great confidence in its ability to prevent and fight the virus,” explains Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute.
solid blocking
North Korea has been implementing a strict external quarantine since the beginning of 2020, as soon as the virus emerged in China.
Despite the country’s 25 million people still not vaccinated against Covid-19 and its health infrastructure is weak, North Korea has officially contained Covid-19 for two years with no cases reported.
Pyongyang even held a night military parade with no health issues in September 2021, but some attendees wore masks, according to photos of the event.
However, over time, North Korea may have lowered its guard against the virus.
Meanwhile, China, North Korea’s only major ally, maintains a restrictive “covid zero” policy on the pandemic and is currently battling several outbreaks of omicron variants in its territory.
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said earlier this year that North Korea had temporarily eased its total blockade of land trade along its border with China, which could be the source of the current micron epidemic.
“The virus may have entered North Korea three ways: rail, ports, or smuggling. But it came from China,” he says.
source: Noticias
