North Korea Admits COVID-19 Outbreak, Isolates 187,000 People After Recording 6 Deaths

Following the country's first pandemic, six individuals are said to have died and 18,000 are currently suffering from fever.

It comes after Kim Jong-un revealed that COVID-19 had penetrated North Korea and imposed a rigorous lockdown across the country. According to the official Korean Central News Agency, six persons who were sick with fever died on Friday, with one of them testing positive for COVID-19.

North Korea First COVID-19 Death

It went on to say that a total of 187,000 people are being separated and treated for the fever, which has been sweeping the country since late April. Some 350,000 individuals have displayed indications of the fever, with 18,000 of them reporting symptoms for the first time on Tuesday.

After the Omicron version was discovered on May 8, the disguised Supreme Leader claimed he was organizing maximal retaliatory measures. Nearly two and a half years of dealing with the pandemic, it is thought to be the first time he has been photographed wearing a face mask.

Officials have declared the pandemic the country's most serious national emergency after illnesses were discovered in Pyongyang. A sub-variant of the Omicron variant, also known as BA.2, was discovered in samples obtained from persons who had fevers.

Authorities have not revealed the actual number of patients or suspected sources of infection. North Koreans are not known to have received vaccinations when the regime denied vaccinations and instead closed its borders. Kim Jong Un, anxious, called a meeting of the Workers' Party's no-nonsense politburo on Thursday, ordering a rigorous lockdown, The Sun reported.

Since early 2020, the poor nuclear-armed nation has been enforcing a strict self-imposed coronavirus blockade to shield itself from the pandemic. It shut down practically all commerce and visitors for two years, shocking an economy already battered by decades of mismanagement and severe US-led sanctions over its nuclear and missile programs.

North Korea tentatively restored railroad freight business between Sinuiju and China's Dandong in January, but China halted the trade last month while it dealt with a COVID-19 pandemic in Dandong. It has so far avoided vaccinations distributed through the United Nations-backed COVAX distribution program, probably due to international monitoring procedures. Until Thursday, North Korea has not verified a single case of coronavirus.

Analysts Claim North Korea's Health System Would Struggle

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), North Korea had completed 13,259 COVID-19 tests by the end of 2020, all of which were negative. North Korea's collapsing health system, according to analysts, would struggle to deal with a large viral breakout. Previous reports have claimed that North Korea had seen COVID-19 outbreaks in the past; however, due to the government's secrecy, it has been impossible to verify the virus's exact impact inside the country, as per Daily Mail.

Expert Cheong Seong-Chang of South Korea's Sejong Institute, the steps mentioned in state media and Kim Jong Un's assertion that economic goals should still be accomplished might signal that North Korea is focusing more on restricting movement and supplies across areas.

North Korea's leadership has turned down vaccinations from the UN-backed COVAX distribution program, probably because they are subject to foreign surveillance. According to Seoul's Unification Ministry, based on humanitarian considerations, South Korea is prepared to give medical assistance and other assistance to North Korea.

Because of a standstill in nuclear negotiations and the North's increasingly provocative missile tests, relations between the Koreas have worsened since 2019. Zhao Lijian, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said Beijing was providing North Korea assistance in dealing with the pandemic.

North Korea is said to have turned down prior Chinese offers of vaccinations made domestically. North Korea was likely signaling its willingness to take outside vaccinations but needed far more doses than COVAX supplied to inoculate its whole population many times, according to Kim Sin-gon, a professor at Seoul's Korea University College of Medicine. He said that North Korea would also like UN-sanctioned COVID-19 medication and medical equipment imports, according to ABC.