North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has directed the army to stabilize the distribution of COVID-19 treatments in the capital, Pyongyang, as part of the fight once morest the country’s first confirmed outbreak of the disease, state media reported.
And the Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim said, at an emergency meeting of the Political Bureau, on Sunday, that the medicines produced inside the country do not reach people quickly or accurately enough, before his visit to pharmacies near the Taedong River in the capital.
Noting the seriousness of the situation, the North’s official news agency reported that Kim “strongly criticized the government and public health officials charged with providing (drugs) for their irresponsible attitude…because they did not roll up their sleeves or appreciate the scale of the current crisis.”
The agency added that Kim ordered the immediate deployment of “strong forces” from the military’s medical staff “to stabilize medicine supplies in the city of Pyongyang.”
The agency quoted Kim as saying that the authorities have ordered the distribution of national reserves of medicines, but pharmacies are not well qualified to carry out their task smoothly.
Al-Zaim added that among its problems are the lack of sufficient storage places for the drug, and the sales representatives are not equipped with protective clothing and equipment in a poor environment.
In the same context, Seoul’s Ministry of Unification, which is responsible for cross-border relations, said it has offered to hold staff-level talks to provide medical support including vaccines, masks and testing kits, as well as technical cooperation.
The offer came shortly following South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol said he would spare no effort in helping the North fight the pandemic, saying his country was ready to provide vaccines and any other medical aid.
Last week, North Korea acknowledged the first huge outbreak of Covid-19, and experts warned that it might cause severe damage to the country with a shortage of medicine supplies and the absence of a vaccination program.
“Fever”
The number of people infected with fever in North Korea reached 1213,550 cases, and 50 had died as of Sunday following the Korean Central News Agency reported 392,920 new cases of fever, and eight deaths.
It did not mention the number of suspected cases that have tested positive for COVID-19.
The health system in North Korea lacks the necessary medicines and necessary equipment, according to experts, and it is considered one of the worst in the world, ranking 193 out of 195, according to an investigation conducted by Johns Hopkins University in the United States.
In the absence of anti-Covid vaccines and the inability to conduct large-scale testing, experts warn that North Korea will have great difficulty in responding to a large-scale outbreak of the virus.
“By visiting the pharmacy, Kim Jong-un was able to see the shortage of medicines in North Korea with his own eyes…Maybe the situation is more serious than he thought,” Chung Seong-chan of the Sejong Institute told AFP.
‘Sense of crisis’
North Korea was one of the first countries to close its borders in January 2020 when the virus emerged.
But experts considered it inevitable that the virus would eventually infiltrate it, with the outbreak of the epidemic due to the mutant Omicron in neighboring countries.
Professor Yang Moo-jin at the University of North Korean Studies noted that Kim’s public rebuke of his government reflected the “sense of crisis” that plagued the regime.
“It points to the general flaw in the quarantine system,” he stressed.
According to the North’s official Korean Central News Agency, the Korean leader expressed his intention to draw inspiration from China’s anti-epidemic strategy.
And China, the only major economic power in the world that still applies the “zero Covid” policy, imposes closure measures on major cities when any infection is recorded, and tracks and isolates the injured systematically.
North Korea has previously rejected offers from China for anti-Covid vaccines, as well as from the Kovacs platform supervised by the World Health Organization.
Despite the health crisis, new satellite images indicate that North Korea has resumed building a nuclear reactor following a long pause.