North Korea mobilizes its army to curb the epidemic

From now on, it is with a mask on the face that Kim Jong-one appears. And it is with a mask that he gives the orders. The dictator has thus castigated, Monday, May 16, the health authorities of North Korea for their management of the Covid-19 epidemic, which has killed 50 since its official appearance in the country. Sign of the gravity of the situation, the North Korean leader has “strongly criticized the government and the public health sector for their irresponsible attitude”according to the official KCNA agency.

Kim Jong-un now oversees near-daily emergency Politburo meetings, and North Korean media released photos of him visiting a pharmacy in Pyongyang on Sunday. During a meeting, the dictator complained in particular about the fact that pharmacies were not open 24 hours a day. According to him, officials in charge of drug supply “have not rolled up their sleeves and properly assessed the current crisis”.

So the dictator ordered the army to get to work “to immediately stabilize the drug supply in Pyongyang”, where the first cases of Covid-19 in North Korea were officially detected last week. Kim Jong-un has taken personal action in the fight against the epidemic, which he says is causing “great upheavals” in the country. None of the 25 million inhabitants of the country are vaccinated, the regime having refused the doses offered by China, Russia or even the WHO.

Despite large-scale confinements, more than a million people have already been infected, according to KCNA, which does not expressly cite Covid-19 but speaks of “fever”. North Korea’s healthcare system was ranked 193rd out of 195 countries in a study by Johns Hopkins University of the United States last year. The country’s hospitals are poorly equipped, with few intensive care units. According to experts, the country has no treatment for Covid-19 and does not have the capacity to massively test its population.