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While China is already desperately battling the crown virus in January, neighboring North Korea is suspiciously calm. The way the state media approaches the situation shows that it could be calm before the storm. Members of the Politburo are now reportedly demanding extensive crown tests.
Senior North Korean officials have called for decisive action against the coronavirus pandemic. Attendees of a Communist Party Politburo session led by ruler Kim Jong Un have passed a resolution establishing “stricter national measures to protect the lives and safety” of North Koreans, state news agency KCNA reported. It is still unclear whether coronavirus cases have been reported in the isolated country.
Until now, North Korean representatives and state media have always emphasized that there is not a single case of infection with the new coronavirus in the country. This was no longer emphasized in the reports on Sunday. The coronavirus pandemic is “a disaster that threatens all of humanity, regardless of borders and continents,” writes KCNA. Such development could create obstacles to North Korea’s “struggle and progress”. Pyongyang, however, maintains a “very stable anti-epidemic situation”.
An assistant disinfects a room in a Pyongyang hospital.
(Photo: dpa)
At the Politburo meeting, senior officials called for comprehensive crown tests, according to the KCNA. The state newspaper “Rodong Sinmun” published a photo of the meeting in which the Politburo members were sitting next to each other. None of them wore a respirator.
Pyongyang closed its borders with the neighboring country in January, shortly after the first cases of coronavirus infections were known in China. Thousands of North Koreans and hundreds of foreigners, including diplomats, were quarantined for weeks. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), as of April 2, 709 people in North Korea underwent testing for the new coronavirus, including eleven foreigners. More than 24,800 people have been released from quarantine.
Experts consider North Korea to be particularly at risk in the coronavirus pandemic. The country, which is subject to numerous sanctions, is almost completely isolated internationally, the health system is weak.
