US, WASHINGTON (ORDO NEWS) — The North Korea would it be miraculously spared by the Covid-19 ? “So far, we have had no patients infected with the virus,” Kim Jong-un regime officials told the state newspaper, according to South Korean media Korea Herald. Its Chinese neighbor, from which the epidemic started, nevertheless counted 34,850 deaths and more than 735,839 people infected with the virus.
“There was a high risk of spread,” points Antoine Bondaz, director of the Korea program at the Foundation for Strategic Research. North Korea has therefore closed its border with China and interrupted flights to and from its neighbor.
“These measures are normal coming from the North Korean regime, because their health system is not at all designed to deal with an epidemic such as in China. The country therefore takes no risk and prefers to cut the rare bridges that connect it to the rest of the world.
“This explains why, even during Ebola, when the risk of the virus arriving there was extremely low, the borders had been closed.”
The dilemma of international aid
According to regime officials, these measures have prevented the spread of the virus in the country. However, Antoine Bondaz believes that “it is very possible that there are cases, internal sources mention it”. Why hide it? “Declaring a case would increase political pressure to evacuate the diplomats and send medical aid, so it is not in their interest.”
“There is always a dilemma in North Korea to ask for international help, it is unlikely that they will make official requests,” said the researcher. As long as the situation is contained, the plan will therefore prefer “to inform themselves informally on how to manage the risks”.
Representatives of the World Health Organization on site also ensure that North Korea “has the capacity” to conduct tests for Covid-19 . On the other hand, “if there were many cases, there the cost-benefit ratio would be reversed and they would be well advised to ask for help.”
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