North Korea health official emerges as face of Covid campaign
At 9.30am every day this week, a soft-spoken official has appeared on North Korean television to report the number of people with fever and new deaths, and to explain measures to stop North Korea’s first confirmed Covid-19 outbreak.
The little-known official, Ryu Yong-chol, has become the public face of the isolated country’s battle against the epidemic.
For more than two years, with its borders sealed, North Korea did not report a single case of Covid19, which sceptics abroad suggested was more a reflection of its traditional state secrecy than a real absence of the coronavirus.
Since confirming its first Covid19 outbreak and declaring a state of emergency last week, North Korea has changed tack.
Appearing to take a page from playbooks of many other countries, it is releasing detailed data about the spread of the virus and advice on how to avoid it.
Ryu works for the state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters, KCNA reported, which appears to be newly set up to tackle Covid-19.
Like its South Korean equivalent, the North Korean agency holds daily briefings, chaired by Ryu, though without questions from reporters.
Ryu comes across as sensible and to-thepoint, uncommon qualities on North Korea’s tightly controlled television better known for the histrionics of its announcers and fawning military commanders.
“We should strengthen efforts to control and isolate every and each infected person without exception so as to thoroughly eliminate any spaces where the infectious disease can spread,” Ryu said yesterday, urging “guarding against loopholes”.
North Korea reported 2,241,610 people with fever and 65 deaths among its 25 million people, without specifying how many were confirmed to have Covid-19.
Little is known about Ryu, including his medical qualifications.
In a July 2017 state media report, a director-general at the Health Ministry with the same name accused South Korea of “plotting a biochemical terror attack” against North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The South denied the accusation.
An official at South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles North Korean affairs, said Ryu previously held that position, though it was not clear whether he was the person cited in the report.