Explained: What's behind North Korea's COVID admission?
Before acknowledging its first domestic COVID-19 cases, North Korea spent 2 1/2 years rejecting outside offers of vaccines and steadfastly claiming that its superior socialist system was protecting its 26 million people from a malicious virus that had killed millions around the world.
Its surprise admission this week has left many outsiders wondering just how bad things really are, and theres rising worry that it could cause a major humanitarian crisis in a country with one of the worlds worst public medical infrastructures.
Because the North has been shut up tight since early 2020, with no reporters, aid workers or diplomats regularly going in, reading the situation is something of a guessing game, and the North has been vague with its state media descriptions of widespread fevers.
But there are some worrying facts: no reported vaccines, very limited testing capability, a terrible medical system and widespread poverty.
Without immediate outside aid shipments, some experts say North Korea could face massive fatality and infection rates.
Others, however, say North Korea is using its admission of an outbreak to rally the public against the virus and boost its control of its people.
Heres a look at what a lockdown in one of the worlds most locked-down nations might look like.
__ WHAT IS KNOWN ABOUT THE OUTBREAK? North Korea announced on Thursday that an unspecified number of people in Pyongyang tested positive for the omicron variant. It called the outbreak the states most serious emergency”.
It was unclear, however, about the extent, and the Norths media used vague language.
State media reports on Friday said a fever has been spreading explosively since late April, leaving six dead, 350,000 sickened and 187,800 quarantined. They said one of the dead had been diagnosed with the omicron variant.
The World Health Organisation says North Korea has reported tests of 64,200 people since the pandemics start, an extremely low figure compared with other countries.
The omicron virus may have entered North Korea over its northern border with China when it reopened railroad freight traffic between the two countries in January. The border has since been closed.
___ WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES? The outbreak could be devastating because North Koreas people largely remain unvaccinated and it suffers a chronic shortage of medicine and medical equipment.
North Korea has many vulnerable people who dont have strong immune systems. Its official inoculation rate is zero and it has no COVID-19 treatment pills, Kim, the professor, said.
North Korea may end up with the pandemics worst death and infection rates in the world for its population size without outside support.
In many advanced countries, omicron has led to significantly fewer hospitalisations and deaths than previous coronavirus variants, but thats mostly because of vaccinations, effective treatment at intensive care units, and populations that have been exposed to the virus before.
None of this applies to North Korea, said Jung Jae-hun, a professor of preventive medicine at South Koreas Gachon University.
We were talking about a 0.1 per cent fatality rate for omicron in South Korea, but thats going to be significantly higher in North Korea, possibly even reaching 1 per cent, although its difficult to make accurate predictions at this point, Jung said.
___ HOW IS NORTH KOREA RESPONDING? Since Thursday, North Korea has imposed a nationwide lockdown, isolating all work and residential units from one another. But there are signs that the country might try to live with the virus, to some extent.
Kim Jong Un still ordered officials to move ahead with construction, agricultural and other scheduled state projects.
Hong Min, an analyst at Seouls Korea Institute for National Unification, said North Koreas pandemic response will be mostly about isolating people with symptoms at shelters.
He said North Korea doesnt have the resources to impose extreme lockdowns like in China, which has shut down entire cities and confined residents to their homes. Its also worried about further hurting an already fragile economy.
North Korea may use the elevated pandemic response to boost its control of its people, said Yang Un-chul, an analyst at the private Sejong Institute. North Korea would have received previous outside vaccine shipment offers if it had indeed wanted to guard against the virus, Yang said.
___ WHAT ARE THE PROSPECTS FOR OUTSIDE HELP? The outbreak renews hopes that North Korea might accept outside shipments of vaccines, COVID-19 treatment pills and other medical supplies.
North Korea wont directly ask for such help but will instead see how Seoul and Washington react at first, said Kim, the professor.
Other experts say that North Korea may think that isolating people with symptoms is the only realistic option it has, considering its deficiencies in hospital infrastructure and medical supplies, which would be difficult to overcome without extensive outside help something North Korea is unlikely to accept.
Jung said the only meaningful help North Korea might allow is limited supplies of vaccines for the elderly and people with pre-existing medical conditions, as its too late to inoculate the countrys entire population.
Hong said North Koreas moves to push on with its goals of improving its economy and military despite the outbreak suggest that the country is willing to accept a certain level of fatalities to gain immunity through infection, rather than receiving vaccines and other outside help. PYPY
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)
