In its first confirmed COVID-19 outbreak, North Korea reported the death of 50 people on Monday. Between Saturday and Sunday, Pyongyang’s emergency epidemic prevention headquarters reported more than 392,920 new people with fevers and 152,600 recoveries. It did not clarify how many of those suspected cases had tested positive for COVID-19.
State-owned media Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Sunday that “all provinces, cities and counties of the country” had been “totally locked down” and that “working units, production units and residential units” were “closed from each other since the morning of May 12.” KCNA added that the country is taking “swift state emergency measures” to control the epidemic, including conducting the “strict and intensive examination of all the people.”
S.Korea says it will spare no effort to help North Korea amid COVID outbreak https://t.co/iTwvAtYAzJ pic.twitter.com/FHuyfhXiDa
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 16, 2022
In response to the growing cases, the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) convened an emergency consultative meeting on Sunday to discuss epidemic prevention measures, headed by General Secretary and Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. According to the release, members of the meeting “intensively discussed the issue of reexamining the statewide epidemic prevention work and quickly correcting the deviations revealed in the supply of medicines after the state epidemic prevention system was switched over to the maximum emergency epidemic prevention system.”
Kim issued an emergency order to immediately release the state’s reserve medicine supply “to swiftly contain and control the spread of the epidemic” and ordered all pharmacies to operate for 24-hours. Commenting on the state of things, Kim said the orders have “not yet been carried out properly and medicines have not been properly supplied to pharmacies.” The leader pointed out that the medicines provided by the state have not been supplied correctly or in a timely manner to citizens by pharmacies, “because officials of the Cabinet and public health sector in charge of the supply have not rolled up their sleeves, not properly recognising the present crisis but only talking about the spirit of devotedly serving the people.” He also criticized the Cabinet and public health sector “for their irresponsible work attitude and organising and executing ability.”
Kim added that most pharmacies have not been set up to “successfully fulfil their function” and “are in such a poor situation” because they don’t have medicine storehouses. He also called out salespersons for offering services “without proper white gowns and hygienic environment.”
Following the meeting, Kim toured pharmacies in the Taedonggang District and gauged the state of supply and sale of medicines. He also familiarised himself with the kind of medicines that have been supplied after the “maximum emergency epidemic prevention system” came into force. His assessment included checking “whether medicines have been kept as required by regulations, whether the pharmacies are turned into 24-hour service system, whether they hold consultations with patients, what they have as antipyretic and antibiotic and what kinds of drugs are generally demanded by inhabitants and how much are medicines.”
Despite the measures, experts predict that North Korea lacks the capacity to test tens of thousands of symptomatic patients, as evidenced by the fact that it has reported closet 400,000 cases of fever but not revealed whether or not they tested positive for COVID-19.
To cope with this gap, a diplomatic source revealed to the Yonhap News Agency on Sunday that Pyongyang has asked China for assistance in its battle against the pandemic. Details of North Korea’s request are not immediately clear. However, North Korea has in the past rejected vaccine deliveries by both China and the World Health Organization’s COVAX initiative. The unmitigated outbreak, however, could have changed its earlier reluctance.
Similarly, on Friday, South Korea’s new President, Yoon Suk-yeol, offered to donate COVID-19 vaccines and other medical supplies to Pyongyang.
After more than two years of claiming to be free of COVID-19, North Korea said last Thursday that there had been an outbreak of the highly contagious Omicron variant in the country, because of which the country is facing “great turmoil.” It has declared a “severe national emergency” and a nationwide lockdown.