North Korea: army enlisted to help deal with over a million Covid cases

North Korea has mobilised its military to distribute Covid-19 medications and has deployed over 10,000 health workers to trace potential patients, the state media KCNA revealed today. 

More than a million people are estimated to have Covid-19, or what Pyongyang is labelling a “fever”. It’s feared that 56 people have died, but it is unclear how many of those suspected cases have tested positive due to North Korea’s limited testing capacity.

 On Saturday North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the rapidly developing Covid-19 outbreak the “greatest turmoil” to fall on the nation since its founding and has since enforced a national lockdown. Jong-un has even publicly criticised his own government’s health officials over what he interpreted as a botched pandemic response, saying that supplies were not being distributed to pharmacies in time because of their “irresponsible work attitude” and lack of organisation. 

As it stands, Covid-19 continues to spread rapidly throughout a population of 26 million in North Korea where it is understood that there are low vaccination rates, no in-built immunity, and no apparent antivirals. Against the backdrop of a shoddy medical infrastructure and widespread malnutrition, the world’s most secretive state is cooking up a recipe for disaster.

Here is what you need to know.

When did this outbreak begin, and how many Covid-19 cases have been reported?

 The fortress-like country is grappling with its first acknowledged Covid-19 outbreak since the pandemic emerged more than two-and-a-half years ago. North Korea announced last Thursday that an unspecified number of people in Pyongyang had tested positive for the Omicron variant.

 Three days later, the state media reported a total of 42 deaths and 820,620 suspected cases, with 324,550 people under medical care. Today, KCNA reported 269,510 more people with “feverish symptoms”, at least 663, 910 people in quarantine and another six deaths. It is reported that 1.48 million people are “feverish.”

 Why is North Korea particularly vulnerable?

 For a country heavily reliant on human labour in agriculture and lacking industrial and medical infrastructure, a Covid-19 crisis could exacerbate its already dire food situation. The country suffered a brutal famine in the 1990s, and today the World Food Programme estimates that 11 million of the country’s 25 million people are undernourished. 

 According to analysts, lockdown restrictions would only hinder ongoing anti-drought efforts and the mobilisation of labour, which is crucial for the country’s economy. “In North Korea, economic activity requires a lot of people’s movements, and you can’t expect trade or large aid from China,” said Lim Eul-chul, a professor of North Korean studies at Kyungnam University in South Korea. “But now farming activity could be scaled back and distribution of fertilisers, raw materials and equipment would become difficult,” he further added.”

 What’s more, the virus could spread rapidly owing to North Korea’s poor health infrastructure. The country has had almost no access to the Covid-19 vaccine nor do they have enough testing kits to confirm infections in the masses, and many are chronically malnourished, leaving them with compromised immune systems. 

 But it still remains tricky to gauge the scope and the scale of the humanitarian situation in North Korea as virtually all international aid providers pulled out of the country amid extended border shutdowns. 

 What is being done to tackle the Covid-19 wave?

 Kim Jong-un has imposed “maximum emergency” virus controls, including lockdowns and gathering restrictions in workplaces. State media said last week that factory labourers and even office workers and government officials have been dispatched to help improve farming facilities and secure water resources across the country. 

 Health experts say that the urgent priority is importing antiviral drugs into the country to treat people with symptoms. But for this to happen, North Korea has to ask for help and let people into the country to distribute and administer aid and medical care. Unsurprisingly, for a country so hellbent on insularity, it has yet to ask for a helping hand.  

 South Korea has offered unlimited aid to the North if requested but has received no response.  Jean Mackenzie, the BBC’s correspondent in Seoul, reports that the North is unlikely to accept any help from their neighbour. “It’ll be far more palatable if the offer comes from an international organisation such as the United Nations,” said Mackenzie, “even if that means South Korea’s supplies need to be redirected and packaged up in this way.”

 Despite offers of aid from multiple countries, Dr Leonid Petrov, a leading expert on North Korea from the International College of Management in Sydney, says that the country may never accept vaccines or outside help. 

He said: “They have this dilemma: to either accept the vaccine and be like everybody else or not accept it and still be claiming victory over Covid without vaccines, claiming that they are the ‘purest race’ and have the magic kinship.”