Coronavirus: Kim Jong-Un claims North Korea has zero cases, experts say yeah right!
North Korea, one of China’s neighbors, has claimed that it doesn’t have a single case of COVID-19 and said its strong measures at the time of the pandemic have helped it maintain a clean record. In its giant northern neighbor, however, over 3,000 people have died in the deadly virus that affected 80,000 people.
North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un has claimed that a 30-day quarantine, a closed border and suspension of trade with China, the hermit kingdom’s biggest international backer, has helped it remain safe during the pandemic that has claimed almost 8,000 lives worldwide.
Experts, however, are not convinced.
Jung H Pak, a former CIA expert on North Korea, told Fox News that it is not possible that the dictatorial regime does not have a single case of coronavirus registered on its soil. He was also not surprised to see Kim boasting about the ‘success’ as he felt it was a good way to draw the attention away from his country’s poor economy, human rights violations and other criminal acts.
In February, the Daily Beast reported about Pyongyang’s silence over the spread of coronavirus in North Korea and how many lives have been lost. Given the country’s brittle health care system, one would not be wrong to expect a big tally.
Last month, the regime failed to organize a parade in central Pyongyang to mark the 72nd anniversary of the country’s army. Last year, Kim presided over the same event which was celebrated in a grand way. The recent photographs of Kim watching the launch of missiles wearing no mask were also thought to be projections about the leader’s ‘superhuman’ image.
While leaders in North Korea have claimed that they have put up a national fight, the Daily NK news organization reported a week ago that as many as 200 North Korean soldiers died because of coronavirus while over 4,000 were quarantined. The country’s army was reportedly struggling to contain the virus’ spread.
North Korea's military activity has gone down
General Robert Abrams, a commander of US Forces Korea, pointed to the low level of military activity in North Korea recently as a hint that it has indeed been hit by the pandemic, Daily Mail reported.
“It is a closed-off nation, so we can't say emphatically that they have cases, but we're fairly certain they do,” he was quoted as saying.
“What I do know is that their armed forces had been fundamentally in a lockdown for about 30 days and only recently have they started routine training again. As one example, they didn't fly an airplane for 24 days,” he added.
There have also been reports of North Korean women and children making a daring escape from China to avoid lockdowns imposed by Pyongyang and Beijing.
Experts also fear that North Korea’s huge malnourishment problem has also seen a faster spread of the coronavirus as inadequate diet can weaken people’s immune systems.