North Korea postponed the start of the school year as part of the arsenal of " extraordinary " measures taken by Pyongyang to protect itself from the coronavirus epidemic, media reports said on Thursday. Pyongyang has not registered any cases of Covid-19 contamination, which appeared in December in the Chinese city of Wuhan before spreading throughout the world, notably in South Korea.
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" The school holidays for students have been extended as part of the preventive measures ," North Korean television announced, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap. This measure will apply to daycare centers, nursery schools and universities when no date for the resumption of classes has been communicated.
The country, subject to multiple international economic sanctions due to its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, has a weak medical infrastructure. The North Korean authorities were among the first to close their borders, an isolation strategy which is, according to experts, the best way to protect yourself from the virus in a country with notoriously poor health infrastructure.
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North Korea has suspended air and rail links, banned tourist visits and imposed a 30-day quarantine on people suspected of carrying the virus. Foreigners are the target of the most drastic restrictions, since a quarantine at home has been imposed on all foreign residents since the beginning of February.
Diplomats are no longer even allowed to walk the streets of the capital, a situation that Russian Ambassador Alexander Matsegora presents as " terrible for morale ". The Russian Foreign Ministry said its country had sent 1,500 screening kits.
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Tomas Ojea Quintana, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, said that Pyongyang and the international community must " join forces " to avoid the epidemic. " Increased isolation is not the solution, " he said, noting that more than 43% of the population suffers from malnutrition.
Many do not have access to drinking water or sanitation, said Thomas Ojea Quintana. " Combined with limited access to information, this makes them even more vulnerable to Covid-19, " he said.
