North Korea’s military medical units accelerated the distribution of medicine to fight a growing coronavirus outbreakState media reported on Tuesday, estimating 1.5 million patients with “fever.”
Regime leader Kim Jong Un ordered a national lockdown to try to contain the spread of the virus among the population, which has not been vaccinated, and mobilized the army in the face of what he considered a poor response from the health authorities.
Images distributed by the official agency KCNA they show hundreds of soldiers in camouflage uniform parading through the capital, Pyongyang.
“The army urgently deployed its powerful forces to Pyongyang pharmacies and began distributing medicines under a 24-hour service system”, indicated KCNA.
One of the photographs distributed by this means shows a crowd of soldiers walking next to a long line of green trucks.
Kim had harshly criticized health officials for not having been able to keep pharmacies open 24 hours a day.
The authoritarian North Korean leader placed himself at the forefront of the country’s anticovid response after the detection of the first cases last week which, according to Kimwere causing great difficulties.
The authorities pointed out that the balance of sick people with “fever” already amounted to 1.48 million cases and the total number of deaths was 56, according to KCNA.
“At least 663,910 are under medical treatment” and the rest would already be recovered, according to the agency.
According to KCNA, leaders have launched media campaigns to raise awareness to the population and pharmaceutical factories have increased the production of medicines.
No response to Seoul
The isolated Asian country has one of the world’s poorest health systems, with poorly equipped hospitals, few intensive care units and no drugs to treat covid-19 or carry out massive tests.
“Most North Koreans suffer from chronic malnutrition and are unvaccinated. There are almost no medicines in the country and the health infrastructure is unable to deal with this pandemic,” said Lina Yoon, a Korea analyst at Human Rights Watch.
In his statement, he urged the international community to offer medicines, vaccines and medical infrastructure to North Korea.
Both China and South Korea have offered to help but the North has not responded to Seoul, according to the South Korean Unification Ministry.
New President Yoon Suk-yeol has taken a more hostile stance toward his nuclear-armed neighbor, but told South Korean lawmakers on Monday that he “will not hold back” aid if Pyongyang accepts it.
Despite this health crisis, new satellite images showed that North Korea has resumed construction of a long-abandoned nuclear reactor.
Amid an acceleration of its military program since the beginning of the year, with a fortnight of tests since January, the United States and South Korea fear that Pyongyang will test a nuclear weapon.
The UN is concerned
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed its “deep concern” for the effect of the covid-19 epidemic on the human rights situation in North Korea.
“The latest restrictions, which include the strict isolation of people and new restrictions on movement, will have dire consequences for those already struggling to meet their basic needs”, said Elizabeth Throssell, spokeswoman for the Office of the High Commissioner, in Geneva.
The Office called on the North Korean authorities to ensure “that the measures taken to deal with the pandemic are necessary, proportionate, non-discriminatory, subject to deadlines and in accordance with international human rights law”Throssel said.
He also reiterated the call of the High Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, for the international community to ease sanctions “to facilitate emergency humanitarian aid and assistance related to covid-19″.
With information from AFP