Experts: Priority Support of Quarantine Supplies to Regime Loyalists, Pyongyang, and Military
North Korea is further strengthening its measures against the novel coronavirus infection across the country, according to a report by the Korean Central News Agency on the 4th. As North Korea intensifies its efforts to combat the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), concerns have been raised that residents living outside Pyongyang or those from lower social classes may be more vulnerable to the deadly threat of COVID-19, according to a report by the Voice of America (VOA) on the 7th (local time).
Professor Cortland Robinson of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine's Center for Humanitarian Health said, "North Korea's chronic social classification system and regional discrimination could negatively impact its COVID-19 response."
He explained that the reality of healthcare, where medical support is concentrated on the core loyalist class to the regime while those considered unstable or hostile receive little to no medical aid, is likely to be directly applied to the COVID-19 response.
Professor Robinson said, "The growing disparity in support and nutrition between Pyongyang and the provinces inevitably makes provincial residents much more vulnerable to infection."
North Korea's military-focused system also marginalizes vulnerable groups.
Patrick Cronin, Asia-Pacific Chair at the Hudson Institute, a Washington-based think tank, told VOA, "Chairman Kim Jong-un is likely especially dedicated to preventing the coronavirus from spreading within the military." He explained that quarantine equipment and supplies are inevitably prioritized for the military.
According to the North Korean Human Rights White Paper, published annually by the Korea Institute for National Unification, discrimination based on social classification and class functions as a core system of inequality in North Korean society. Such discrimination occurs in social advancement, job placement, cadre appointments and promotions, education, and residential assignments.
Meanwhile, North Korea claims to have 'zero' confirmed COVID-19 cases as of the 7th, but appears to be struggling to procure quarantine supplies.
According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), Caroline Haga, spokesperson for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Asia-Pacific Regional Office, stated on the 6th that plans to promptly support medical equipment requested by North Korea's Ministry of Public Health and the Korean Red Cross have encountered difficulties.
This is due to a global surge in demand causing shortages of personal protective equipment. Haga added that restrictions on North Korea's air operations and the inflow of supplies are also factors causing delays.
Earlier, Kim Cheol-su, director of the Central Hygiene and Anti-epidemic Station of North Korea's Ministry of Public Health, indirectly hinted at a shortage of quarantine supplies by mentioning in a March issue interview of the external propaganda monthly magazine Geumsugangsan that measures are being taken to urgently secure testing reagents.
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