‘Self-reliance’ doctrine is put to the test by Covid-19

IT’S a country that has largely created its own isolation. Secretive and authoritarian, it’s only when the leadership of Kim Jong-un allows do we hear much about North Korea.

The strategy of cutting itself off has served the regime well, until last week, that is, when North Korean health authorities admitted their first cases of coronavirus.

Now the Asian nation’s official ideology of self-reliance known as “juche” is being put to the ultimate test.

According to state broadcaster Korean Central Television, as of May 15, there were 240,459 people treated for the “malignant virus” in the capital

Pyongyang, accounting for roughly 7 per cent of the city’s population

But since then, wider figures show almost two million cases of Covid-19 across the country of 25 million people have been reported, although only a handful of patients officially tested positive for coronavirus.

In a country where huge swathes of the population are unvaccinated and susceptible to disease due to chronic malnourishment and where a dilapidated healthcare system lacks supplies of basic drugs and equipment, it’s hard to overstate the impact the virus will have on North Korea.

However, this has not stopped the country’s authorities in the capital Pyongyang from steadfastly refusing offers of international assistance.

Both the United States and South Korea have so far not received a response to offers to help tackle the outbreak, including by sending aid, according to South Korean officials.

Likewise, the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is “deeply concerned at the risk of further spread”, said North Korea had not responded to requests for information about the outbreak.

As is so often the case, Pyongyang appears to have moved in the direction of China for help. According to local press reports in South Korea, aircraft operated by North Korea’s national carrier this week flew to China to pick up pandemic supplies and deliver them to Pyongyang.

The Chinese foreign ministry said last week that China was “ready to go all-out to provide support and assistance to North Korea in fighting the virus”.

The danger here, of course, as the WHO has pointed out, is that apart from the devastating impact it will have on North Koreans themselves, an unchecked spread could give rise to deadlier new variants. Kim’s regime, it seems, is not as isolated or self-reliant as it would like to believe.