Deaths due to "fever": Corona situation in North Korea is coming to a head - Kim Jong-un speaks of "unrest"

Created: 05/15/2022, 18:15

By: Anna-Katharina Ahnefeld

From officially 0 patients to a dramatic health situation: the corona virus is apparently spreading rapidly in North Korea.

The country has one of the worst healthcare systems in the world.

Pyongyang - As the coronavirus spread rapidly in the rest of the world, North Korea reported no infections.

For a long time, the isolated country in East Asia was – at least officially – considered corona-free.

North Korea, ruled by dictator Kim Jong-un, sealed off its borders even more closely in 2020 to protect itself from the pandemic.

But now events seem to be rushing: North Korea only announced on Thursday that the highly contagious omicron variant had been discovered in the capital Pyongyang.

The corona situation apparently worsened dramatically at the weekend.

Leader Kim Jong-un said the outbreak had caused "great unrest" in the country.

However, he is confident that "we can overcome this malignant infectious disease within a very short time". 

According to experts, North Korea itself has one of the worst health systems in the world, as reported by Agence France-Presse.

In addition, the corona virus is encountering an unvaccinated population.

The country has so far rejected vaccine offers from China and the World Health Organization (WHO).

After reports of the omicron outbreak in the country, both the government in Beijing and South Korea have once again offered vaccines to the leadership in Pyongyang.

Corona outbreak in North Korea: government speaks of deaths due to "fever"

The corona outbreak is likely to have serious effects on the people of North Korea.

The country is economically devastated and the population is suffering from famine.

This had been getting worse and worse since the outbreak of the global corona pandemic.

The country reported 15 deaths from "fever" on Sunday, up from 21 on Saturday. According to state news agency KCNA, the total number of deaths rose to 42 -- out of 820,620 cases and at least 324,550 cases requiring medical treatment.

How many of the deaths can be attributed to the corona virus remained unclear due to a lack of testing capacity.

State media said the deaths so far were "due to negligence, including drug overdose, due to a lack of knowledge of scientific treatment methods."

People look at a TV screen with an image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un during a news broadcast at a train station in Seoul, South Korea.

North Korea on Saturday reported 21 new deaths and 174,440 more people with fever symptoms as the country scrambles to slow the spread of Covid-19 among the unvaccinated population.

© Ahn Young-Joon/dpa

According to North Korea expert Cheong Seong-chang of South Korea's Sejong Institute, "it is not an exaggeration to consider all these cases of 'fever' as Covid-19 illnesses" given North Korea's lack of testing.

According to Seong-chang, the actual contagion numbers could be higher than the reported "fever" numbers because of many asymptomatic cases.

The number of infections is growing “very quickly”.

North Korea: Kim Jong-un announces nationwide lockdowns – modeled on China

A “complete lockdown” has been ordered for all provinces and cities, according to the state news agency.

Kim announced that Pyongyang will follow China's model for nationwide lockdowns.

North Korea should learn from China's "experience and fruitful achievements".

Beijing is pursuing a strict zero-Covid strategy, but is currently struggling with corona outbreaks in several provinces.

North Korea expert Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, interprets Kim's rhetoric as a pessimistic signal to his own people.

"His language gives the impression that the situation in North Korea will get worse before it gets better," he told AFP.

In his words, the ruler could "pave the way for international aid" - or "gather behind him a population that faces further victims".

Meanwhile, amid the country's severe health crisis, new satellite images indicate North Korea has restarted construction of a reactor at its main nuclear facility.

In order to secure his power, the head of state of the isolated country relies on nuclear deterrence and has therefore been testing one rocket after the other for months.

Analysts warn that Kim could speed up nuclear weapons testing plans to distract North Koreans from the coronavirus outbreak.