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A South Korean news channel reports on the corona outbreak in the neighboring country
Photo: Lee Jin-man/AP
For a long time, Kim Jong Un's regime acted as if there was no corona in North Korea.
But a few days ago, Pyongyang confirmed the first corona infections in the country.
The number of fever-related deaths in North Korea has now risen to 50, according to official figures.
By Sunday evening (local time), the number of patients with fever symptoms had risen to more than 1.2 million, the state media reported on Monday, citing the emergency center for epidemic prevention.
More than half of them have recovered.
Furthermore, the isolated and authoritarian country avoided calling the disease by its name.
Instead, the talk continued about the “spreading of the epidemic”.
The information from the internationally isolated country cannot currently be verified.
Military helps with drug distribution
At a new emergency meeting of the ruling Labor Party's Politburo, leader Kim Jong Un reportedly ordered the military to help distribute medicines.
The use should therefore initially be limited to the capital Pyongyang.
Kim had reprimanded the responsible authorities for not guaranteeing an adequate supply of medical resources so far, it said.
Among other things, he found out what antipyretics and antibiotics the city's pharmacies had in stock and whether they were open around the clock.
South Korea offers help
How many of the reported cases of fever are actually due to a corona disease remained unclear.
Experts suspect that North Korea does not have the capacity to conduct mass tests.
North Korea officially confirmed infections with the pathogen last Thursday for the first time since the outbreak of the corona pandemic more than two years ago.
The country had long claimed to be corona-free.
However, the information was met with skepticism abroad.
In view of the situation in the neighboring country, South Korea has offered Pyongyang work talks to help it deal with the corona crisis.
South Korea's Ministry of Unification, which is responsible for maintaining ties between the two countries, agreed to supply medicines, vaccine and test kits.
col/dpa
