North Korea officially reported its first cases of Covid last week; Today the situation seems out of control.
After years of battling the Covid-19 pandemic, many countries have ended their quarantines and are slowly returning to normal. But in North Korea, the story is different.
Two years after reporting a single case of Covid, Pyongyang reported on May 16 that more than one million people had contracted the disease, dubbed “fever” in the state media.
The real numbers may be much higher than the official ones, as the government of the country of 25 million is known for its secrecy. Also, North Korea has limited testing capacity.
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At least 56 people have died so far, but it is unknown how many of these suspected cases have tested positive for the virus.
North Korea only announced its first confirmed cases of Covid last week, although experts believe the virus has probably been circulating for some time.
“The spread of this evil epidemic is the biggest uprising that has occurred in our country since its establishment,” said the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, by the official KCNA news agency.
As a result, his government implemented a “maximum emergency” inspection at the national level. North Korea is already the most isolated country on the planet.
Liz Throssell, spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), expressed her concern on Tuesday (17/5) over the “potential impact on human rights” of the incarceration imposed by the authorities.
Three questions help to understand how North Korea got to this point.
1. Refusal of international aid
Believing that it could only contain the virus with border closures implemented in January 2020, North Korea refused the help of the international community to provide the country with a vaccine.
The BBC’s North Korea expert Alistair Coleman said the North’s reasons for refusing vaccine doses from abroad were unclear.
“Some sources believe they are waiting for more effective mRNA vaccines rather than vaccinating the population with less effective injections,” he explains.
“Another way of thinking is that foreign vaccine sources come with conditions that are unacceptable to Pyongyang.”
There are other reasons, too, says Kee Park, a professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard University. First, the traditional North Korean philosophical theory known as “juche” emphasizes self-reliance.
“It’s not easy for them to ask for help,” the professor explains in an interview with the BBC’s Spanish service, BBC News Mundo.
He also explains that since the start of the pandemic, the entry of humanitarian cargo into South Korea has declined as authorities view foreign cargo and personnel entry as a possible entry route for the virus.
“They will have to reassess the risk and benefit of foreign aid while the virus is already in the country,” Park adds.
Recently, a group of planes from the North Korean state airline Air Koryo made several flights to China after parking for more than two years.
“These flights may suggest a change in North Korea’s willingness to accept air cargo,” says the expert.
According to him, this could have significant implications if they eventually decide to accept help from other international organisations.
2. Health system deficiencies
North Korea currently lacks the capacity to test its population, increasing the shortage of medicines and equipment needed to deal with the coronavirus.
Professor Kee Park says North Korea is a low-income country with a limited healthcare system.
“Despite the relatively high HCW density, the system will struggle to cope with the increase in patients,” he says.
North Korea expert Alistair Coleman explains that Pyongyang’s response to Covid has always been to deny that the virus exists in the country.
“The government’s response was to close its borders and implement a hygiene strategy to prevent infections, spraying public places like train stations, schools, hospitals.”
But the country could not have been less prepared to fight the disease.
“The healthcare system is pretty terrible,” says Jieun Baek, founder of Lumen, an NGO monitoring North Korea.
“This is a very bad system. Except for the two million people living in Pyongyang, most of the country has access to very poor quality healthcare.”
People fleeing North Korea have claimed in the past that syringe needles were reused until they rusted and beer bottles were turned into makeshift saltwater containers.
In addition to the unvaccinated population, there is also a shortage of medicines and personal protective equipment.
And testing is very limited: only 64,000 tests have been carried out since the start of the pandemic, according to WHO data.
By comparison, South Korea has so far conducted 172 million tests.
3. Low bulk immunity
Herd immunity in the country is extremely low as a result of Pyongyang’s refusal from the international community to help vaccinate the population.
Despite rumors that some of North Korea’s elite have been vaccinated, the vast majority of North Koreans have not received any doses of Covid-19.
Even during the pandemic, state media misleadingly warned of the ineffectiveness and dangers of Covid vaccines.
Harvard professor Kee Park says the population is “immunologically vulnerable to the Sars-Cov-2 virus and all its variants,” as there have been no confirmed cases of covid-19 in the past two years.
“There have been no outbreaks so far, so no one has developed immunity. Also, they still need to vaccinate the population. There is essentially no immune protection,” he adds.
The World Health Organization on Monday expressed its “concern” over the situation in North Korea, as the Omicron variant has been seen to affect around 1.5 million people in the Asian country since the end of April.
“As the country has not yet started vaccination against Covid-19, there is a risk of rapid spread of the virus if not mitigated by urgent and appropriate measures,” WHO Regional Director Khetrapal Singh said in a statement.
OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell stressed that in the absence of a vaccination campaign, the spread of the pandemic “could have a devastating impact on the human rights situation in the country”.
In a statement released Tuesday, Throssell urged North Korean officials to discuss opening channels of humanitarian support with the United Nations, including medicines, vaccines, equipment and other life-saving support.
“We also urge authorities to facilitate the return of international and United Nations officials to help provide support, including to vulnerable populations and those living in rural and border areas.”
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source: Noticias
