North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for stricter and more thorough measures against the coronavirus. The topic was discussed at a meeting without acknowledging whether the country had reported any coronavirus infections.
According to the Korean Central News Agency or KCNA, the virus has created obstacles to North Korea's effort in its economic construction, and the government described the pandemic as a great disaster threatening the whole of mankind regardless of borders and continents.
However, KCNA reported that North Korea has been maintaining a very stable anti-epidemic situation because of their strict top-class emergency anti-epidemic measures and they practice consistent nationwide protective measures that is compulsory all over the country.
Experts have pointed out that North Korea is particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus because the country has a weak healthcare system and defectors have accused Pyongyang of covering up the real numbers of the virus outbreak. Government officials have insisted that the North is virus-free.
North Korea coronavirus measures
The World Health Organization or WHO stated that 709 people, 698 nationals and 11 foreigners, have been tested for the virus on April 2, while more than 24,800 people have been released from quarantine. The KCNA said that the officials at the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korean called for a strict and thorough check of the infiltration of the virus on April 11.
The KCNA also reported that a joint resolution was adopted on more thoroughly, taking national measures for protecting the safety and the life of the citizens of North Korea in order to cope with the worldwide epidemic disease.
The joint resolution also included goals of intensifying the nationwide emergency anti-epidemic services continuously and pushing ahead with the economic construction that the government had planned for years. The North Korean government will increase its national defense capability to help stabilize the livelihood of its citizens this year.
However, pictures released by North Korea's state media showed that none of the committee members who attended the meeting was wearing a mask nor practicing social distancing, including Kim Jong Un.
North Korea has closed its borders with China in January after the first coronavirus cases were detected. It also put thousands of its own people and hundreds of foreigners into isolation and mounted disinfection drives.
Suppressing COVID-19
In March, Daily Mail U.K. reported that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced that the country has no positive case of COVID-19. The North Korean government said that it is due to their strict implementation of quarantine for 30 days as they closed all of their borders and the suspension of North Korea's trade with China made the country coronavirus free.
However, several news sites published stories in February that the real reason why North Korea has zero cases of COVID-19 is because Kim Jong Un resorted to a disturbing strategy. The country was criticized worldwide when reports stated that the government killed the first COVID-19 patient by shooting him.
Due to these reports, experts are skeptical about the statements that Kim Jong Un published and they believe that implementing quarantine and closing their borders are not the only steps that his government took.
A former CIA analyst on North Korea, Jung H. Pak, told Fox News that Kim Jong Un might be covering up the real numbers of COVID-19 cases in order to protect his dignity as a leader and to stop all the talks about human rights violation and economy problems in the country.
The analyst added that North Korea is a closed-off nation and no one really knows what is going on in the country. There are rumors about Kim Jong Un's order to assassinate COVID-19 patients, however, there are no concrete evidence. Experts are certain that North Korea has more coronavirus cases than they want to admit.
Closing the borders
Nearly every country in the world has reported coronavirus cases. Aside from China, the country where the virus originated, the USA, Spain, Italy and South Korea have reported the most cases. According to the tally done by the Johns Hopkins University, coronavirus cases across 193 countries and territories now exceed 1.7 million, with more than 108,000 deaths.
North Korea has demonstrated in the past how effective they are in stamping out viruses. The World Health Organization in 2018 praised the country for eliminating measles successfully. If the coronavirus has spilled into North Korea, lead Kim Jong Un can use his authoritarian power to round up and isolate the infected, lock down the affected regions and seal off information about what is really going on.
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