North Korea downplayed corona cases, virus was widespread
North Korea downplayed corona cases, virus was widespread
For the first time since the global outbreak of Covid-19, researchers allegedly broken through the impenetrable information blockade of North Korea and reports how ordinary citizens caught up during the pandemic. While Pyongyang insisted for over two years that not a single covid-fall Had crossed the country's borders, a new report draws a much darker picture that largely testifies to a deadly wave of untreated diseases.
The report: A look behind the scenes
the 26-page report also documented about death Fake or self -written medication as well as the official denial that created a culture of dishonesty. Dr. Victor Cha, one of the main authors of the report, said: "Doctors have lied to the patients. Village bosses have lied to the party. And the government has lied to everyone."
The methodology of research
This report was published by the Washington Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in cooperation with George W. Bush Institute. It is based on 100 personal interviews that were secretly carried out in North Korea between September and December 2023. The testimonies - collected by informal, conversational methods known as "snowball sampling" - include all nine provinces and the capital Pyongyang. The authors describe the results as "perhaps the first insight" in the most extreme isolation of the country in modern history.
a failing state
cha, a former advisor to the White House and Korea foundation manager at CSIS, said the results are proof of "the total failure of the government, during the pandemic to do something for the people." He explained: "Everyone effectively lied to everyone during the pandemic", based on a government directive that said that there was no covid in the country, although one knew that it was not the case. This denial policy forced the more than 26 million people of North Korea in a mutual silence.
dealing with Covid-19
When North Korea closed its borders in early 2020 and the virus worldwide infected and killed, the state media claimed to have kept the virus completely outside; No infections, no deaths. The world was skeptical. But the total control of the regime over limits and information made independent reviews almost impossible.
Two years later, the North Korean television showed scenes of a military parade in Pyongyang, in which crowds filled the Kim IL sung while protective masks were rare. Shortly afterwards, reports on a mysterious "fever outbreak" appeared in the state media. At the beginning of May, Pjöngjang confirmed his
According to the survey, Covid-19 has been circulating in the country for at least two years. Ninety percent of the respondents stated that themselves or someone in their environment had been infected. Most reported that the outbreaks in 2020 and 2021 - not in 2022 - were worst. "Fever occurred everywhere and many people died within a few days," said one participant. the reality in North Korea
folk medicine as the last hope
In the absence of official help, the citizens of folk medicine turned to: salt water washing up, garlic chains and even opium injections were some of the agents. A woman reported that her child had died because it had received the wrong dose of an adult drug. Another questioned spoke of neighbors who had overdosed in fake Chinese medication. In total, one of five respondents reported deaths due to incorrect use or fake drugs.
protective equipment was almost unable to. Only 8 % of those surveyed stated that they received masks from the state. Many made their own masks, used them several times or bought them at black market prices. A mother reported that her children would have to sew her own masks because the masks issued by the state are too great.
difficulties in everyday life
cha explains that the failure was not only in what the government held back, but also in how it blocked the type of basic survival opportunities that had made it possible for the “imaginative” citizens of North Korea to survive earlier disasters such as the famine of the 1990s. In pandemic, however, the private markets were closed, officially to contain the virus, but also to limit the spread of information, as Cha suspects. "They did not allow people to help themselves with coping mechanisms," he said. "Simply areolate, quarantine and then provide nothing."
the suffering was not limited to diseases. With the ban on internal trips and closed markets, the food bottlenecks became acute. One -hour percent of those surveyed stated that they suffered hunger. The respondents reported that they tried to survive quarantine times without rations, without access to medication and without ways to find help.
the case of rationing
The rationing system, which has long been unreliable, collapsed completely under the weight of the lockdowns. "If you didn't have an emergency food at home, it was really difficult," said a soldier. Eight and eighty percent of those surveyed stated that they had no access to covid tests while pandemic. Less than 20 % received a vaccine - and most of them were only administered after Pyongyang recognized the outbreak in 2022 and accepted limited Chinese help.
The dangers of the information report
Even the simple act of reporting illnesses became a risk. The report explains that local clinics and neighborhood monitoring units were obliged to report cases to the central authorities. But only 41 % of the respondents ever received information about these reports. Most stated that the results were either never shared or had spread through rumors. One respondent said: "I realized that serious illnesses and deaths were not reported because they were told that they shouldn't call it covid."
a feeling of frustration
This system of denial created what Cha called a "double lie": the government lied its citizens, and the citizens lied to each other and their government - everyone tried to avoid quarantine, censorship or worse things. The survey also documented a deep frustration with the regime's reaction and its propaganda. One participant said: "Our country can build atomic bombs, but they cannot give us vaccines." Others noticed the contrast between their conditions and what they heard about other countries: free tests, access to medication, travel options.
In one of the most striking results of the report, 83 % of those surveyed said that their experiences did not match what the government or its leader Kim Jong and had told them. More than half stated that the regime's covidal announcements explicitly did not believe. "When I saw the top leader emphasized his love for the people, while so many died without medicine," said a surveyor, "I thought of all the people who did not survive."
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