South Korea is one of the world’s success stories for tackling coronavirus and president Moon Jae-in’s approval ratings have soared to a high of 71 per cent as a result. Yet North Korea has still claimed victory over its South Korean rival when it comes to dealing with this disease. According to the highly secretive regime-state, there is not a single Covid-19 case within its territory. But while Pyongyang is reluctant to come clean about the truth of how widespread coronavirus is, the country’s state media hints at what is really unfolding.
There was much hullaballoo when Kim Jong-un ‘disappeared’ in mid-April. Speculation about what happened ranged from Kim being on his deathbed, to the suggestion that Kim’s existing health issues were causing problems. But according to the South Korean National Intelligence Service, the real reason was somewhat less dramatic: it seems that Kim, like many others around the world, was simply sheltering from the threat of coronavirus.
China’s decision to send a medical team to the DPRK in April may not have been to aid an ailing Kim then, but merely to assist North Korea’s primitive healthcare system in coping with the coming crisis.
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