As reported by NK News, an independent publication reporting on what happens inside North Korea from anonymous sources both inside and outside the country, the warning about snow included advice that people wear a mask, glasses and a cap to protect themselves. “It has warned that smokers are at a higher risk of contracting Covid-19, and that migratory birds or even snowfall could spread the virus”. “North Korean media have also been pushing out fringe theories and unverified claims on how the virus is spread,” Jakhar adds. Such extreme steps may reflect the country’s paranoia about Covid-19.
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He points to an October 16 article in the state-run DPRK Today that claimed the country is “a uniquely clean land on the planet” and “a place free of infection from the virus.” “The coverage appears to send a message domestically that the strict measures Kim Jong-un took have worked, and that he has saved North Koreans from the virus,” Jakhar says.
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The state-run media outlets – including TV stations, radio and newspapers – have told people about the symptoms of Covid-19 and broadcast images and videos of workers disinfecting public places. “North Korean state media has been unusually upfront about the need to prevent the virus spreading, describing it as a matter of ‘national survival’ and ‘life or death’,” says Pratik Jakhar, an expert on North Korea at BBC Monitoring. Meanwhile, within North Korea, the message has been clear: people need to follow the rules. These findings are in line with border controls placed around the country’s fishing industry.
New satellite data and analysis from the non-government organisation Global Fishing Watch shows that illegal North Korean fishing in Russian waters dropped 95 per cent last year and fishing in North Korea’s waters dropped 50 per cent in the last part of its season. The strict rules North Korea has put further strain on a country already on the brink. In September the country was forced to apologise to South Korea after it shot and burned the body of a South Korean official who was in the North’s waters. South Korean intelligence agencies claim to have uncovered the execution of one Covid rule-breaker within North Korea. “They've created buffer zones between one and two metres wide at the border.” The country is reported to have “shoot-to-kill” orders in place to stop anyone bringing Covid-19 inside its borders. “They've really reinforced border security with more border guards,” says Jieun Baek, a fellow with the Korea Project at Harvard’s Belfer Center. The country is also subject to wide-ranging international sanctions linked to its development of nuclear weapons. Such measures are coupled with existing limits on freedoms, human rights abuses, economic failure and food shortages. It has restricted people’s movement and travel, gatherings of people are limited, masks are mandatory and state media has been blanketed with public health information. In its attempts to control Covid-19, North Korea has taken a similar, though more extreme, approach to other nations. When an outbreak occurred in China, North Korea tracked down all Chinese visitors in the town of Rason and quarantined them on an island for a month. Quarantine rules in North Korea are also strict, according to reports. As of December 3, 33,223 people had been released from quarantine, according to the figures reported to the WHO – though no numbers have been reported since. The result is that little reliable information finds its way out of North Korea – those with contacts inside the country and who work with defectors say it has been impossible to work out the reality of the health situation on the ground.ĭespite reporting no cases of Covid-19, North Korea has been quarantining potential suspected cases. The last remaining members of the International Committee of the Red Cross left the country on December 2. All official messaging is controlled by Kim Jong-un’s regime and international diplomats and humanitarian groups have largely left the country. Kim Yo-jong, the sister of Kim Jong-un, has hit back at suggestions from South Korea that the country may have had cases, describing such talk as “reckless”.įrom the outside, it is impossible to prove the scale of the Covid-19 crisis in North Korea. The newspaper reported a defector who had returned to the country from South Korea was “suspected” to have Covid-19. The closest officials got to admitting there may be a case was in July when state newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported a “state of emergency” had been declared in Kaesong City, in the south of the country.
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