SK’s Moon: Anti-virus work with North a ‘priority’

SOUTH Korean President Moon Jae-in called for anti-Covid-19 cooperation with North Korea as a way to break the impasse between the two Koreas, and for less dependence on the stalled de nucl e a r i s a t i o n t a l k s be t ween Pyongyang and Washington.

“We should not only seek after the US-North Korea dialogue but search and do what can be done between the two Koreas,” Moon said during a Q&A session following a special address to the nation marking the third anniversary of his inauguration.

Among various inter-Korean projects that Seoul has proposed to Pyongyang since early this year, Moon stressed that joint quarantine cooperation is a “realistic” project that can be done in the short term, as it does not violate UN-led sanctions against North Korea.

“Both South and North Korea are putting a lot of efforts into dealing with the coronavirus, and even if it is successfully contained this time, many experts expect a second wave of the pandemic. Under the circumstances, if the two Koreas cooperate on preventing such infectious disease, it will contribute to hygiene and public health for all people both in the South and the North.”

The president also stressed that other inter-Korean projects, including reconnecting inter-Korean railways and arranging individual tours to the North and reunions for separated families, all remain worth pursuing despite the North’s apparent lack of interest.

“Still, North Korea has not responded,” he said. “I think [the North] is suffering from various difficulties due to the novel coronavirus. With overall international exchange and diplomacy stopped, we cannot just keep pressing North Korea.

“Once the coronavirus situation calms down, we will continue to communicate and persuade Pyongyang to accept the offers,” he said.

North Korea has insisted that it has not had a single confirmed case of Covid-19. Many observers dispute Pyongyang’s claim and have raised concern that the country’s fragile health system may not be able to cope with a massive outbreak.

Daily NK, a Seoul-based online media outlet run mostly by North Korean defectors, on May 4 reported a potential fever outbreak in northern Ryanggang province’s Taehongdan county, which has sparked fears of Covid-19 spread in the area.

A Ryanggang-based source told Daily NK: “There was an increasing number of people with body temperatures of 38-40C in Taehongdan county . . . On April 27 the situation got very serious, with 21 deaths.

“I can’t verify how many more of these patients [with fever lasting more than two days] there were after April 27 . . . but I’ve heard that there’s been an increasing number of patients suffering from an illness of an unknown cause,” said the source.

Other Daily NK reports have suggested that a North Korean man who crossed the Tumen River into China’s Jilin province on April 20 tested positive for Covid-19, that 180 soldiers may have died from “coronavirus-like symptoms” between January and February, and that 23 other people may have died in the country due to the disease as of late February.

President Moon added that Seoul and Washington are maintaining communication with Pyongyang while admitting it is “not smooth at the moment”.

“We have hoped that once US-North Korea talks are reached, inter-Korean relations could speed up. But unlike what was expected at first, they are still in the doldrums. It’s unclear when we will achieve results, considering the political calendar of the US,” he said, likely a reference to the US presidential election in November.

Denuclearisation talks between the

US and North Korea have been deadlocked since the Trump-Kim summit collapsed in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February 2019. Observers have said with Trump’s focus on winning re-election this year, his interest in engaging North Korea appears to have waned.

Meanwhile, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday also offered to help North Korea contain the virus, in his reply to an earlier message from Kim.

“China is willing to enhance antiepidemic cooperation with the DPRK and provide as much support as its capacity allows for the DPRK in line with the latter’s needs,” state-run Xinhua News Agency reported Xi as saying.

He also expressed confidence of a “final victory” over the pandemic through the combined efforts of China, North Korea and the international community.

Xi’s remarks were a response to a message Kim sent last week, lauding Beijing’s success in stemming the virus.

The Chinese leader, saying he was very glad to receive Kim’s “warm and friendly message”, added that he highly values the bilateral relations between the two countries and intends to “strengthen strategic communication” and “deepen exchanges and cooperation”.