North Korea’s leader complains of ‘slackness’ as Covid-19 cases jump again

NORTH Korea has reported 232,880 new cases of fever and six more deaths as leader Kim Jong-un accused officials of “immaturity” and “slackness” in their early handling of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The country’s anti-virus headquarters said 62 people have died and more than 1.7 million have fallen ill amid a rapid spread of fever since late April. It said more than a million people recovered but at least 691,170 remain in quarantine.

Outside experts say most of the illnesses would be Covid-19, although North Korea has been able to confirm only a small number of cases since acknowledging an Omicron outbreak last week, likely because of insufficient testing capabilities.

Failure to control the outbreak could have dire consequences in North Korea, whose broken health care system and rejection of internationally offered vaccines have left a population of 26 million un-immunised.

The outbreak is almost certainly greater than the fever tally, considering the lack of tests and monitoring resources. There’s also suspicion that North Korea is underreporting deaths to soften the blow for Mr Kim, who was already navigating the toughest moment of his decade in power. The pandemic has further damaged an economy already weakened by mismanagement and Us-led sanctions over Mr Kim’s nuclear weapons and missiles development.

During a ruling party politburo meeting on Tuesday, Mr Kim criticised officials’ early pandemic response, which he said underscored “immaturity in the state capacity for coping with the crisis”. He blamed the vulnerability on their “non-positive attitude, slackness and non-activity”. Yesterday, he urged officials to strengthen workplace virus controls and make “redoubled efforts” to improve the supply of daily necessities and stabilise living conditions.

He previously criticised officials’ handling of the distribution of medicine released from state reserves and mobilised his army to help transport supplies to pharmacies in capital Pyongyang.

The Korean Central News Agency said nearly 3,000 members of the Korean People’s Army’s medical units were helping deliver medicine to pharmacies, while more than 1.4 million officials, teachers and students were being deployed for check-ups aimed at identifying people with symptoms so they could be quarantined.