North Korea has just announced its first COVID-19 case, most conveniently blaming a deserter who had fled to South Korea and then deserted the North again, allegedly bringing the bug with him.
That’s the twist the North Korean state media, KCNA, is putting on the case after a Workers’ Party politbureau meeting, in which Kim Jong Un made a rare appearance whether he was there in person or “virtually”. screen, it was not clear.
But there was no doubt, the atmosphere of crisis surrounding the meeting, the severity of the pandemic that has been affecting the North for months, despite the regime’s refusal to acknowledge what is happening. Also implicit in the unusually detailed KCNA dispatch, published in Rodong Sinmun, the party newspaper, was the need to reinforce Kim’s image as a strong leader capable of dealing with the crisis.
Kim, generally called simply “supreme leader,” reported that the KCNA revealed “a critical situation in which the vicious virus could be said to have entered the country.”
The quotes about KCNA were not directly attributed to Kim, and it is not certain whether he personally made them or simply approved them. At the same time, it was reported that it took what KCNA called “the preventive measure to completely block the city of Kaesong”, just above the demilitarized zone, some 40 miles north of Seoul. That’s where the defector may have crossed the line, possibly swimming across the Imjin River as it flows from north to south.
Never before has the North hinted at COVID-19 cases, even announcing a series of precautions that begin with the closure of its borders with China in January and the severe restrictions imposed on the movement of diplomats.
The defector’s story, said Robert Collins, a long-time intelligence analyst for the US command in Korea, “gives the Kim regime a plausible excuse for how the virus infections started.” Collins, who has written numerous books and studies on North Korean issues, cited reports from areas “under strict isolation” in North Korea: “about the only method the Kim regime has to contain any spread of the virus” .
“The defector’s story “gives Kim’s regime a plausible excuse for how the virus infections started.”“
The politburo meeting, as reported by KCNA, recognized the crisis precipitated by a pandemic of epic proportions: the country faces food and economic instability exacerbated by US and UN sanctions that make it extremely difficult for the North to carry conducted normal trade and trade despite China Aid. Having previously denied that anyone had contracted the disease, state media had to emphasize Kim’s presence as party chairman in announcing the coronavirus case, critical for spreading the bad news after months of official obfuscation and denial of the disease.
The tone of the KCNA report suggests the need to strengthen Kim’s leadership at a time when confidence in his ability to control the pandemic is obviously questionable.
Often out of sight for weeks since the coronavirus started in January, Kim has recently reappeared on a visit to a chicken farm where he ordered increased production and, several days earlier, to a hospital under construction in Pyongyang. At the hospital, he reportedly chided managers and workers for going too slowly, definitely a sign of the immediate need for a major upgrade to medical facilities, including many more beds. On both visits, it was unclear exactly when he had been there, but he looked healthy if he was overweight, at least judging by the photos posted by KCNA.
Kim’s reported appearance on the politburo was the most important in weeks: an opportunity to build confidence amid a pandemic that seems beyond the combat capabilities of the North’s medical facilities. Significantly, North Korea’s state media was careful not to blame anyone living in the North, but rather a lone deserter who appeared to be responsible for the entire outbreak.
Kim himself did not mention the deserter, but KCNA opened his report stating that “an emergency event occurred in Kaesong City, where a fugitive who went south three years ago, a person suspected of having been infected with the virus, returned. vicious”. on July 19 after illegally crossing the demarcation line. “
That is the only mention of the defector until the last paragraph in which the politburo meeting “severely addressed the issue of the performance of the loose guard in the front line area in the relevant area where the track to the south occurred.” The politburo promised “severe punishment: for” the military unit responsible for the fugitive case. ”
South Korea’s military leadership is equally concerned with how a defector might have returned to the North. An official with the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the South called the probability of the deserter returning to North Korea “high” and said the army was “investigating the detailed routes” of their crossing. He was believed to be a 24-year-old man under investigation for raping a female deserter.
Meanwhile, Kim has revealed “anxiety about his mortality,” said Lee Sung-yoon, a professor at Tufts University’s Fletcher School, in his “rush to reinforce his sister’s credentials,” meaning Kim’s role. Yo Jong, who has denounced the defectors as “mestizos” and is believed to be largely responsible for the decision to blow up the North-South liaison office built at the expense of South Korea in Kaesong.
“His health system severely deteriorated during the arduous march of famine in the mid-1990s.“
“How convenient a narrative to blame a ‘half-breed’ for bringing the coronavirus to Paradise on Earth,” said Lee. “Kim can now claim that, despite the threat of mass infection, he has acted swiftly and decisively in blocking the city of Kaesong to contain the spread.”
North Korea has seized on the case with a speed that betrayed the regime’s grave concern about its stability, including its ability to function, during the pandemic. It was as if they really needed such a case to transfer blame to outside influence, and affirm the role of the “supreme leader” at a time when he has been far from public view.
It was reported that Kim said, again without quotes attributed directly to him, “that everyone must face the reality of the emergency” and that “they called on everyone to overcome the current epidemic crisis by not losing focus of thought and action ” , practicing responsibility and dedication to be faithful and faithful to the leadership of the Central Committee of the Party, meeting closer to it to defend the well-being of the people and the security of the country without fail. “
Behind those heavy words is the widespread suspicion that the pandemic may have had a more devastating impact in North Korea than in most other countries, certainly South Korea, which has acted firmly to control it by publishing daily numbers. of new cases.
“COVID-19 definitely has a very negative impact on North Korea, regardless of how many people were dead or sick,” said Choi Jin-wook, former director of the Korea Institute for National Unification. They have “closed the border with China for seven months,” meaning “no food, no daily manufactured goods.”
No one doubts that the Northern medical system is unable to effectively deal with the pandemic.
“Their health system deteriorated severely during the arduous famine march of the mid-1990s,” said Robert Collins, referring to the period when up to two million North Koreans are believed to have died of starvation or disease. “Doctors have little to offer patients who must buy their drugs on the black market. Few can afford something significant along those lines. “
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