North Korea Shuns Outside Help Offer As Covid Woes Looms

[RAMROD 117,004]

Like no other country, North Korea could do with help against COVID-19.

The country’s population is unvaccinated and susceptible to disease due to chronic malnourishment. Its dilapidated healthcare system lacks supplies of basic drugs and equipment.

But even as North Korea faces the prospect of a humanitarian catastrophe amid its first officially confirmed coronavirus outbreak, Pyongyang is steadfastly refusing offers of international assistance.

The United States and South Korea have not received a response to offers to help tackle the outbreak, including by sending aid, according to South Korean officials

The World Health Organization, which is “deeply concerned at the risk of further spread”, said the country had not responded to requests for information about the outbreak.

UNICEF said on Thursday it had proposed a “package of support that could help protect health workers and manage caseloads” but had not yet been able to contact its partners in the country.

North Korea, whose dynastic leadership proclaims an official ideology of self-reliance known as “juche”, has long been known for its secrecy and hostility towards the outside world.

Dan Chung, executive director of US-based Christian aid group Crossing Borders, described the country’s refusal of assistance as “telling,” given discussions he has had with North Korean defectors that suggest the country is in a “much worse condition than they are letting on”.

"It indicates that North Korea is either not ready to accept the vaccine because of limitations such as lack of refrigeration or because they do not want to show the world the dilapidated state of their outer regions,” Chung told Al Jazeera. “I would guess that is a combination of both.”

While the true extent of death and disease inside North Korea is unclear, the country is all but certainly facing a humanitarian disaster.

Although authorities have reported only 65 deaths so far, a caseload of 2.2 million infections could be expected to result in tens of thousands of deaths in an unvaccinated population.

 

 

The looming public health disaster is also likely to aggravate economic and food security crises that have been building since the pandemic began. Last year, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimated North Korea would fall 860,000 tonnes short of its food needs in 2021. Even before the pandemic, UN estimates suggested more than one-quarter of the population was malnourished.

“One issue is agriculture,” Morgan said. “This is the rice planting season. If mass activity is not permitted, or large bodies of labour are not available for planting – because of illness, lockdown or diversion to other tasks – then this could have an impact on food supply this autumn. I think food distribution is likely to be severely under strain already.”

 

 

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/5/20/north-korea-shuns-outside-help-as-covid-catastrophe-looms

 

[Knife 7,079]

Does North Korea not have the backing of China?

I assumed they would already have received aid from China in the form of vaccines, considering their past ties.

[RAMROD 117,004]

1 minute ago, Knife said:

Does North Korea not have the backing of China?

I assumed they would already have received aid from China in the form of vaccines, considering their past ties.

They did for supplies like masks etc, but China's vaccine is shxt against Omicron variants. It is only effective for the initial 2020 virus, which is why they got sudden spike in their country themselves. One needs to get the mRNA based vaccines or AZ to be protected. And those vaccines are produced by western countries, which they shunned. 

[AkariGaga 1,252]

42 minutes ago, Knife said:

Does North Korea not have the backing of China?

I assumed they would already have received aid from China in the form of vaccines, considering their past ties.

China don’t back people,they back juntas or military regimens that would benefit their country.China surely will give North Korea vaccines in exchange for something like resources  but don’t expect it to get to the people.And China vaccine is essentially useless at this point.

[PartySick 172,418]

Cool. So reading this thread I get the impression the next 'rona mutant wave is going to come from either North Korea or China?

[TEANUS 16,140]

5 hours ago, RAMROD said:

They did for supplies like masks etc, but China's vaccine is shxt against Omicron variants. 

Weren’t all of the vaccines kinda ineffective against Omicron lol?

[RAMROD 117,004]

33 minutes ago, TEANUS said:

Weren’t all of the vaccines kinda ineffective against Omicron lol?

They are not created equal. But after booster shot, people who are vaxxed with mRNA based vaxx or AZ or combination of it shown improvement in protection 

[RAMROD 117,004]

1 hour ago, PartySick said:

Cool. So reading this thread I get the impression the next 'rona mutant wave is going to come from either North Korea or China?

China maybe. Since their citizen TRAVELS.

Doubt about NK unless they deliberately sending people abroad as bioweapon, Resident Evil/Train To Busan style.

[Economy 52,840]

5 hours ago, PartySick said:

Cool. So reading this thread I get the impression the next 'rona mutant wave is going to come from either North Korea or China?

I don't think North Korea's population size and amount of very limited contact with outside world make it a likely place for a major new variant to emerge

 

North Korea has only 25 million people. There's probably more antivax Karen's in the US alone than all of the population of Korea

 

Plus their contact with outside world is so low if a major new variant did happen there it may or may not come out. Just think of how infectious COVID has been all this time infecting virtually every part of the world and only now they get their first major (known) outbreak? That's how isolated they are