North Korea - COVID-19
The Emergency Quarantine Command was established in January 2020, shortly after China and North Korea suspended all trade and shut down their borders in response to the spread across China from the epicenter in Wuhan. Since then, North Korea has taken extensive measures to prevent the spread of the deadly virus within its borders, all while maintaining outwardly that it is virus-free.
North Korea cut off the border between China and North Korea on January 22, 2020. Considering that the blockade of Wuhan City, China, which is the "earthquake center" where the infection of the new coronavirus spread for the first time in the world, was on the 23rd of the next day, it can be said that it is unusually fast. With economic sanctions from the international community continuing, it decided to block the border with China, which accounted for 90% of foreign trade.
North Korea has fired senior health officials responsible for the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic after a meeting called by leader Kim Jong Un on 02 July 2020 assessed their failures, even as the country officially claims to be virus free. The Highest Dignity [an honorific term to refer to Kim Jong Un] convened a large meeting of the Political Bureau to review the efforts of the National Emergency Quarantine Command, responsible for preventing the spread of the coronavirus and to question the problems that have emerged so far. Experts who doubt Pyongyang’s assertion that there are no confirmed COVID-19 cases within its borders point to extensive measures Pyongyang has taken since late winter to stop the spread of the deadly virus, including the lockdown of entire counties and cities and the closure of its economic lifeline – the border with China.
Additionally the government warned the public through health lectures earlier this year that COVID-19 was spreading in three specific areas of the country, including the capital Pyongyang. The reason why the party’s Political Bureau put the coronavirus quarantine on the agenda and emphasized quarantine again is that the spread of the infectious disease caused by poor medical facilities is becoming serious again, and that if it gets worse, it is a threat to the safety of the system.
The agency in charge of North Korea’s response to COVID-19 was upgraded and reorganized as a military organization, a move that was meant to use fear of the coronavirus as a tool to exert more control over the population. The organization, set up in January as the virus spread in China, now answered directly to top leader Kim Jong Un after a reshuffle last week that also ordered provincial and county-level coronavirus centers to be reorganized as military units, governed by military law. “The Central Emergency Quarantine Command was renamed as the Central Emergency Quarantine Headquarters at a meeting of the Party’s Political Bureau on the 13th, and reorganized as a military unit. The state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper reported August 14 that the command was reorganized in order to “correctly exercise its power and increase its responsibility and role.”
The Central Emergency Quarantine Command of each provincial Party committee became Emergency Quarantine Divisions, and the heads of provincial party committees were appointed as division commanders. The county-level [organizations] meanwhile became the Emergency Quarantine Brigade, with the heads of the county party committees appointed as brigade commanders. The Central Emergency Quarantine Headquarters operates in the same system as the military, and military law governs acts of neglect or obstruction in its mission to prevent the spread of the virus. The authorities are focused on ensuring that all members of the party, the military, and the public obey the commands and control measures of the Central Emergency Quarantine Headquarters
A man who had escaped to South Korea in 2017 swam back across the border to his hometown in Kaesong on July 19, and authorities reported he had COVID-19 symptoms, a claim which could not be confirmed by South Korea. Kaesong was put under complete lockdown and travel between provinces was outlawed as the country entered a “maximum national emergency.”
According to the WHO, by mid-August 2020 North Korea had quarantined and released a total of 25,905 people since December 31, 2019, including 382 foreigners and 25,523 North Koreans. North Korea still maintains that there are no COVID-19 confirmed cases in the county.
North Korean port cities are in trouble, with idle ships rusting in once bustling harbors and state-run trading companies reduced to catching octopuses for sale to China, brought down by double pinch of the coronavirus and international trade sanctions meant to deter Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions. Trading companies were already struggling due to the sanctions, which forbid certain North Korean exports to China and were increasingly enforced by Beijing, but coronavirus delivered a knockout punch to the industry as Pyongyang and Beijing in January closed down their entire 880-mile border and suspended all trade to prevent the spread of the pandemic.
Prior to the coronavirus crisis, fishermen in small metal or wooden boats had been able to catch octopus and smuggle it into China around sanctions, but the pandemic put a stop to even that. The stoppage of maritime trade has crippled the economy of Chongjin, North Korea’s third largest city and home to more than 600,000. Employees of the trading companies used to live so well that it made ordinary citizens jealous. But now they are living hand to mouth.
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