SEOUL, South Korea – North Korean leader Kim Jong-un says the nation is “two crises at a time” – fighting the spread of the coronavirus and dealing with widespread flood damage. But Mr Kim has urged his country not to accept international aid for fear that outside help could bring Covid-19, state news media reported on Friday.
Mr. Kim, who spoke at a meeting of the ruling Labor Party Politburo on Thursday, said he sympathized with the ‘great pain’ of families who had lost their homes to the floods and lived in temporary shelters.
But he said “the situation, in which the spread of the global malignant virus has diminished, requires that we do not allow outside flood support for the flood, but close the border and carry out strict anti-epidemic work,” according to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency.
The double-whammy calamities of the pandemic and floods have caused the economic problems of Mr. Kim enlarged. The Northern economy, despite the sanctions imposed by the United Nations for its development of nuclear weapons, has gone into a tailspin this year as fears of coronavirus infections cut deep in its exports and imports. China, the country’s primary trading partner.
An unusually long monsoon season, as well as torrential rain this month, has triggered floods and earthquakes in both North and South Korea. But the North said the natural disaster had 96,300 acres of farmland and 16,680 homes, including roads, embankments and railroads. Most of the damage was reported in southern and western provinces, a breadbasket for North Korea, which has suffered from chronic food cravings even in normal years.
North Korea has also taken drastic action against the coronavirus, closed its borders in January and banned all diplomats in Pyongyang for a month. It ransacked the border town of Kaesong last month, and suspected a defector crossing the border from South Korea of bringing the virus with him.
North Korea’s rapid actions were fueled by fears that a Covid-19 outbreak could seriously test its supposedly underdeveloped public health system and its economy, already struggling under international sanctions, analysts said.
On Friday, however, North Korea lifted the lockdown, “based on scientific verification and guarantee by a professional anti-epidemic organization.”
The North Korean state news media have long insisted that there are no cases of coronavirus in the country, although outside experts state the claim. The North did not disclose if the defector who returned from South Korea tested positive for the virus, and officials in the South have said there is no evidence that he had it.
The global pandemic and creeping flood damage comes as Mr Kim has failed to get United Nations sanctions lifted through his halted diplomatic relations with President Trump.
By excluding outside help, it turned out that Mr. Kim Seoul and Washington denied an opportunity to sever ties with the North through humanitarian missions.
“North Korea’s rejection of flood defenses is demonstrable to prevent transmission of Covid-19 into the country,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. “But humanitarian aid is heavily politicized by the Kim regime because it does not want to show it to the domestic population as international rivals.”
North Korea is closing deals with neighboring China, which accounts for nine-tenths of its external trade, and accusing smugglers of operating its booming unofficial markets. The country’s exports to China, hit hard by the border closure, fell to $ 27 million in the first half of this year, down 75 percent from a year ago, according to the Korea Institute for National Unification. Seoul. Imports from China fell 67 percent, to $ 380 million.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Updated August 12, 2020
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Can I travel in the United States?
- Many states have travel restrictions, and many of them are taking active measures to enforce those restrictions, such as issuing fines or requiring visitors to be quarantined for 14 days. Here is an ever-updating list of restrictions across statewide. In general, travel increases your chances of getting and spreading the virus, because you will encounter more people than if you stayed at home in your own ‘pod’. “Staying at home is the best way to protect yourself and others from Covid-19,” the CDC said. However, if you are traveling, take precautionary measures. If you can, drive. If you have to fly, be careful when choosing your airline. But know that airlines are taking real steps to keep planes clean and limit your risk.
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I have antibodies. Am I immune now?
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I am a small business owner. Can I get relief?
- The incentive bills introduced in March provide assistance to the millions of American small businesses. Those eligible for support are non-profit organizations and organizations with less than 500 workers, including sole proprietorships, independent contractors and freelancers. Some larger companies in some sectors are also eligible. The assistance provided, which is managed by the Small Business Administration, includes the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Damage Disaster Program. But many people have not seen payments yet. Even those who have received help are confused: the rules are draconian, and some are stuck on money they do not know how to use. Many small business owners get less than they expected or heard nothing at all.
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What will school look like in September?
- It is unlikely that many schools will return to a regular schedule this fall, requiring the grinding of online learning, easy childcare and stunted workdays to continue. The two largest public school districts of California – Los Angeles and San Diego – said on July 13 that instruction will be remote only in the fall, citing concerns that growing coronavirus infections in their areas pose too great a risk to students and teachers. Together, the two districts enroll about 825,000 students. They are the largest in the country to date to abandon plans for even a partial physical return to classes when they reopen in August. For other districts, the solution will not be an all-or-nothing approach. Many systems, including the nation’s largest, New York City, are creating hybrid plans that include some days in classrooms and other days online. There is no national policy yet, so check regularly with your municipal school system to see what is happening in your municipality.
About 60 percent of North Korea’s population this year finds food in food insecurity, according to the U.S. Economic Research Service.
The floods and fears of coronavirus have also complicated Mr.’s plan. Kim to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the ruling Workers’ Party on October 10 with pomp and show.
“We can not make the 75th anniversary of the homeless party affected by the floods,” Mr Kim said at the Politburo meeting, urging his government to restore the lives of the people as normally as possible. bring.
The leader of the North has visited the flooded areas in recent weeks, sometimes photographed driving his own car, and has called for the release of spare parts for the hard-hitting cities, in an apparent attempt to demonstrate what the state news media has called his ‘people-love’ leadership.
During the Politburo meeting, Mr. Kim replaced Prime Minister Kim Jae-ryong, who was in charge of the cabinet and the economy, with Kim Tok-hun, a senior Labor official. The outgoing prime minister got a senior post within the party.
Mr. Kim also promoted Ri Pyong-chol, an official in charge of North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons development, to the Politburo’s top management committee, along with the new prime minister.
