North Korea is one of the most closed countries in the world, and it is no exaggeration to say that it is the most closed of the entire international community. This feature has made North Korea one of the few in the world not to face Covid-19 outbreaks, but that has changed since late April.
For at least a month, the Asian country has been facing a severe wave of Covid-19 cases, the first since the start of the pandemic. But how could such a closed country, which has become even more closed in the past two years, be exposed to the Covid-19 virus? The answer is simpler than you might think.
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For more than two years, North Korea has kept its borders permanently closed to contain the Covid-19, but at the end of April 2022, there was an important event for the country: the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the North Korean army. .
The event brought together more than 20,000 people in Pyongyang, the country’s capital. This large concentration of people in one place may have helped spread the virus in the capital, which is the epicenter of the disease, and in the countryside, where the virus was caught on returning travelers.
It explains how the virus spread across the country, but doesn’t say how it got there. The answer to this question is also relatively simple. One of the few countries that has good relations with North Korea is China, which not long ago faced an outbreak of Covid-19 in some areas, such as Shanghai.
North Korea borders South Korea to the south, Russia to the east, and China to the north. Credit: World Atlas
Since the beginning of this year, Kim Jong-Un has eased restrictions slightly to contain the disease and allowed a large flow of trade with China. Korea borders the Asian giant to the north, and that border may have been the entry point for the virus into the country.
So far, at least 50 people have died with Covid-19-like symptoms in North Korea since late April. More than 1.2 million North Koreans have already shown symptoms similar to the disease, however, testing and the release of official data are quite rare.
Going through: R7
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