Source: Yonhap News
Foreign media speculation has emerged that North Korea’s Corona 19 situation may have reached a situation like a disaster that is virtually uncontrollable due to poor medical capabilities.
World’s weakest health system worries regarding low vaccination rates
CNN, citing the Korean Central News Agency on the 15th local time, delivered statistics on the number of deaths and suspected cases of COVID-19 in North Korea, saying, “I am concerned given the world’s most vulnerable public health system and the situation where most residents have not been vaccinated.” told
“Given the nature of the world’s most isolated and opaque system, it is difficult to estimate what the actual situation will be like,” he said.
The BBC, citing an expert, said, “I’m really worried regarding how many people will die,” citing an expert, citing South Korea’s 170 million corona19 tests, but North Korea’s only 64,000. reported.
Source: Yonhap News
Thorough control with the outside, difficult to understand the situation
It is difficult to understand how the Corona 19 spread because North Korea strictly blocked traffic from outside during the pandemic.
“North Korea did not disclose how many people died at the time,” CNN said, referring to the famine in the 1990s, when an estimated 2 million people died.
In particular, these media feared that the shock might be even greater considering North Korea’s poor medical system.
The BBC reported testimonies of defectors who put the sap in beer bottles and recycle the needles until they rust.
Baek Ji-eun, founder of Lumen, a North Korean human rights group, said, “Except for the two million people in Pyongyang, the medical environment for most of the residents is very poor.
Surgeon Choi Jeong-hoon, who fled North Korea in 2011, recalled the 2006 and 2007 measles epidemics and said that North Korea lacks the resources for continuous quarantine and isolation.
They also argued that North Korea does not follow the guidelines that patients with symptoms must be transported to a hospital or quarantined.
“When there is not enough food in hospitals or quarantine facilities, people flee to get food,” he told CNN in 2020.
Source: Yonhap News
“The containment strategy will exacerbate the food shortage.”
The BBC predicted that even if North Korea, without a vaccine, adopts a containment strategy as an arduous measure, it will only worsen the food shortage and will not have any effect.
North Korea is suffering from chronic food shortages, including severe famine in the 1990s and recently.
The World Food Program (WFP) estimates that 11 million out of 25 million North Koreans are undernourished.
“Look how difficult it is to stop Omicron in Shanghai,” said Ben Cowling, a professor at the University of Hong Kong.
North Korea rejects vaccine offer
Nevertheless, North Korea has also rejected proposals for vaccine support from China and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Owen Miller, a professor at the University of London, analyzed that North Korea desperately needs aid, but if several aid organizations enter the country as in the 1990s, they may not want aid because of concerns regarding government instability.
Some experts are also suggesting that North Korea is trying to divert the public’s attention to the 7th nuclear test it is preparing for.
Peter Hotez, a professor at Bailey School of Medicine, said, “The only way to get a vaccine is to quickly introduce and inoculate it. The international community is ready to help, but North Korea must be prepared to accept it.”
