Since acknowledging a COVID-19 outbreak last week, North Korea has said “an explosively spreading fever” has killed 56 people and sickened about 1.5 million others.
The North’s apparent underreporting of deaths is meant to defend Kim's authority as he faces “the first and biggest crisis” of his decade of rule, Nam Sung-wook, a professor at Korea University, said.
North Korea is also worried about a shortage of medical supplies and food and daily necessities that have dried up in markets during the border closures, Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul’s University of North Korean Studies, said. Receiving outside help would put the North, which is always intensely proud, despite its poverty, in a difficult position. Kim had repeatedly touted his country as “impregnable" to the pandemic during the past two years. On Saturday, however, he said his country faces “a great upheaval” and that officials must study how China, his country’s only major ally, and other nations have handled the pandemic.
And North Korea will only accept Chinese aid if it's made in an informal, unpublicized manner, because it’s “a matter of national pride," analyst Seo Yu-Seok at the Seoul-based Institute of North Korean Studies said. He said China will likely agree to this because it views aid shipments as a way to bolster ties with a partner as it confronts the West.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
S.Korea says it will spare no effort to help North Korea amid COVID outbreakSouth Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Monday the country will spare no effort to help North Korea, as the isolated nation battles a COVID-19 outbreak, and reiterated he will remain open for humanitarian aid.
Read more »
S.Korea says it will spare no effort to help North Korea amid COVID outbreakSouth Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Monday the country will spare no effort to help North Korea, as the isolated nation battles a COVID-19 outbreak, and reiterated he will remain open for humanitarian aid.
Read more »
North Korea reports more COVID-19 deaths; Kim Jong-un blasts officialsNorth Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is ordering the military to distribute medicine in Pyongyang and blasting top officials as negligent while the reclusive nation battles a surging outbreak of COVID-19.
Read more »
North Korea Reports More COVID-19 DeathsNorth Korea reported 15 more COVID-19 deaths on Sunday, bringing the country’s death toll to 42. State media also reported another 296,180 infections, adding up to a total of 820,620 in recent weeks. After claiming no coronavirus cases for the entire pandemic, North Korea announced its first COVID-19 patients on Thursday.
Read more »
North Korea: More than a million Covid cases fearedThe military has been ordered to intervene as a wave of Covid cases sweeps the unvaccinated country.
Read more »