Posted on 03/04/2020 7:26:41 PM PST by caww
The North Korean regime has so far refused to confirm any cases of the virus within the country, although South Korean media has reported that several people have already died.
North Korea’s habitual lack of honesty has made gauging its concern difficult, but sources in Pyongyang who spoke to RFA’s Korean Service claimed that the 'Mt. Paektu Prize Sports Festival' and the 'February Spring Arts Festival', both of which are held on Kim’s birthday were canceled as preventative measures...... canceling the Mt. Paektu Prize Sports Festival is akin to canceling the Super Bowl in the United States, with the events drawing mass attention nationwide.
As recently noted by the World Health Organization (WHO) chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, there is concern among experts over a possible epidemic in a poverty-stricken country such as North Korea, as their healthcare systems are woefully unequipped to handle its impact.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
What???
This is ridiculous ....for It’s Just the d@mn Flu™.
Maybe that little prick will die from Covid-19.
With a crumbling health-care system that is starved of public investment North korea is more vulnerable to a viral outbreak of this kind than any other country in the world. Pyongyang is well aware of this....They’ve sealed its borders, suspended all tourism, quarantined all foreign nationals, shut down many public sites, and closed all schools for a month.
No birthday party what a tragedy
They’d have a rough time if it were just the flu. They have practicaly no medical Dr’s in the rural area and few in the capital.
But North Korea’s 880-mile border with China on both sides survive by smuggling goods across it. if he’s closed the borders as said this is going to create further food shotages.
Some 43% of the population, or 11 million people, are already malnourished, so they’re highly vulnerable to this disease.....Its public health system is underdeveloped and dilapidated; its hospitals are barely functional and lack medicines.
The regime has also sent pleas for international help to UNICEF, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Doctors Without Borders, and the World Health Organization; some of these organizations have already secured sanctions exemptions to ship vital equipment to the country.
Send him some Twinkies via an ICBM.
Some folks here said there was no way the virus could get into North Korea.
They had kicked all Chinese out of the country, so they had nothing to worry about...
It does not work that way. All it took is one infected person left in the country long enough to infect others...
This virus has a long latency period without symptoms, it spreads twenty times more easily than the standard flu, and it hospitalizes 15% or so of the middle aged or older adults it infects.
In the case of North Korea most of those (15% of infected) folks are toast.
It’s not their health care that will e the problem, but the massive number of people that are on the verge of starvation who can’t withstand this infection.
Is why he shot the rockets off.
That whole border with China is full of black marketing on both sides....and two of the Chinese provinces there were hit with the virus. If or not they can even keep it closed as people will cross if they’re starving...and the black market is what’s been their survival.
I can’t imagine why folks said the virus couldn’t get into North Korea. I read there were 200 Diplomates being quarantined alone....and nobody knows for certain the cases there already but suspect that there are.
“it spreads twenty times more easily than the standard flu”
I think that number is a bit high. 4-5 times would be more accurate.
Aside from that, your post is spot-on, but I would add that the verge-of-starvation masses most probably qualify as “compromised”. That is a substantial portion of the population.
We’ll likely never know unless the N. Korean regime collapses.
Possibly.....Kim has been contacting world agencies for help, perhaps they weren’t responding as quick as he wanted.
I’m curious how the N.Korean population views this virus.....when the famine took millions of people they were told this was a great sacrifice for the country. They were literally dying on the streets. Not so sure they swallow that in these new generations there.
Poor Rocket Man. Why did this have to happen on his birthday? So unfair. Alone again......naturally!
Ruh-roh
It’s his late father’s birthday.
He smokes which doesn’t help. Overweight and likely diabetic. Would not want to be him facing this.
Kim Jong-Il died in 2011. His son, Kim Jung-Un is the current leader.
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