NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong Un has slammed his country’s response to its first confirmed COVID-19 outbreak as “immature” and accused government officials of inadequacies and inertia as fever cases swept the country.
The media on Wednesday (May 18) reported that Korea now has 232,880 more people with fever symptoms, and six more deaths after country revealed the COVID-19 outbreak last week. It did not say how many people had tested positive for COVID-19.
Presiding over a politburo meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party yesterday (May 17), Kim said that the “immaturity in the state capacity for coping with the crisis” increased the “complexity and hardships” in fighting the pandemic, according to Reuters.
Since its first acknowledgement of the COVID-19 outbreak, the North has reported 1.72 million patients with fever symptoms, including 62 deaths as of Tuesday evening.
However, the North also said that the country’s virus situation was taking a “favourable turn”, adding that the party meeting discussed “maintaining the good chance in the overall epidemic prevention front”.
While the report did not elaborate on what grounds the North had come to such a positive assessment, it is important to note that the country – which has limited testing capabilities – has yet to start mass vaccinations.
This has left many experts expressing their concerns that it may be difficult to assess how widely and rapidly COVID-19 is spreading.
According to Reuters, KCNA further reported that North Korea has been pushing to better handle “the collection, transport and test of specimen from those with fever while installing additional quarantine facilities”.
The state media also said that health officials have developed a COVID-19 treatment guide aimed at preventing drug overdoses and other related problems.
In the same vein officials and researchers have stepped up efforts to “massively develop and produce drugs effective in the treatment of the malignant virus infection and establish more rational diagnosis and treatment methods” although KCNA did not provide details on the drugs involved in treating the infection.
In the face of an “explosive” COVID-19 outbreak, it has been reported that North Korea has mobilised its armed forces, including 3,000 military medical staff, for a 24-hour medicine delivery system, with 500 response groups to confirm and treat infected patients.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the UN human rights office said on Tuesday that measures taken by Pyongyang to fight COVID-19 could have “devastating” consequences for human rights in the country as restrictions to curb the virus could limit people from getting enough food and meeting other basic needs.
South Korea has offered to send medical supplies including vaccines, masks and test kits as well as technical cooperation to the North although Pyongyang has yet to respond to this. – May 18, 2022
