Lack of medicine, no vaccines and limited test capacity. North Korea now fears one million infected. The country is now launching dubious ways to fight the virus.
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North Korea announced on Thursday last week its first corona case since the start of the pandemic. The next morning, the state news agency KCNA confirmed that at least one person had died with corona.
On Monday, new upward figures came in. At least 56 people have now died of symptoms of the coronavirus, and the regime now fears that almost 1.5 million have become ill with what the authorities have called a “fever of unknown origin”.
It reports the South Korean news agency Yonhap late Monday night. The number is around five percent of the country’s just over 25 million inhabitants.
Kim: – The biggest crisis
At the same time, the numbers may be even higher.
The country has limited test capacity, and one can also be both infected and contagious with corona, even without symptoms.
–The country’s supreme leader Kim Jong-un is coming according to the BBC Monday with new clear orders: The “powerful forces” in the army’s medical corps must “immediately stabilize the supply of medicine in the capital Pyongyang”.
“The malignant epidemic is the biggest crisis since the country’s inception,” Kim said. He thus compares the ongoing crisis with, among other things, the enormous famine disaster in the 90s – in what has become known as “the arduous march.”
–But Kim’s order may be easier said than done, as the country has been more or less completely closed during the pandemic.
The border closure has led to difficulties in importing supplies: fertilizers, medicines, money and food aid do not enter the country.
Launches questionable treatments
The country lacks the medicines that have been used in the West to treat corona. In addition, the country is one of only two in the world that has not started vaccination.
“Since the country has still not started the vaccination, there is a risk that the virus will spread rapidly in the masses,” said Regional Director for Southeast Asia in the World Health Organization, Poonam Khetrapal Singh on Monday.
On Monday, the country’s Deputy Minister of Public Health Kim Hyong Hun drew up a new strategy for dealing with it in an interview on state television, reports Reuters.
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Now the country will no longer quarantine people with symptoms, but rather treat the cases in a new system. These are the North Korean councils:
- According to the regimen, painkillers and antipyretics such as paracetamol or ibuprofen should be taken to alleviate the symptoms of fever.
- The authorities are asking for antibiotics to be used. This type of medicine can not fight viruses, but bacterial infections that can occur in addition when you are ill – such as pneumonia.
- “Traditional treatments” – or women’s advice – are highlighted as recommended in the state-run media. Gargling with salt water and drinking honeysuckle tea are among the advice the regime approves of.
None of these methods can cure or effectively treat covid-19.
However, this is not the first time the country has developed an unscientific “miracle cure”. During the March epidemic in 2015, the country claimed to have developed a “medicine” consisting of ginseng and small amounts of gold and platinum.
The medicine, which was named Kumgang-2, should be able to prevent and cure measles, Ebola, SARS and AIDS.
No response to offers of help
The country’s stated enemy and neighbor in the south, South Korea, has offered help to its neighbors in the north.
Newly appointed President Yoon Sul-yeol said on Monday that South Korea will not shy away from any means to help the North Koreans quell the outbreak.
In the election campaign, President Yoon distinguished himself by promising a tougher line against North Korea than his predecessor. Now he still wants to offer humanitarian aid.
– We must not hold back when it comes to providing the necessary support to the North Korean people, who are exposed to the threat posed by the coronavirus.
He also promised vaccines, health equipment and even health workers on loan, if North Korea responds to them.
–But North Korea has so far not responded to the neighbor’s offer of help.
At the same time, Kim has openly criticized his own health authorities for not distributing medicine properly, according to Al-Jazeera. He calls leaders in his own health sector “irresponsible”.
Yang Moo-jin at the University of North Korea Studies in Seoul, says this is a sign of the seriousness of the ground in the country.
– He points out the shortcomings in the quarantine system, he says to AFP.
Did you get this with you? A new propaganda video from North Korea attracted attention in March:
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