This picture taken and released from North Koreaâs official Korean Central șÚÁÏÉç Agency (KCNA) on May 14, 2022 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un taking part in Workersâ Party of Korea council to check the operational status of the maximum emergency measurement to prevent the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus infection in Pyongyang. (Photo by KCNA VIA KNS / AFP)
SEOUL â North Korea announced 21 new âfeverâ deaths Saturday and said more than half a million people had been sickened nationwide, two days after confirming its first cases of COVID-19.
Despite activating its âmaximum emergency quarantine systemâ to slow the spread of disease through its unvaccinated population, North Korea is now reporting tens of thousands of new cases daily.
On Friday alone, âover 174,440 persons had fever, at least 81,430 were fully recovered and 21 died in the country,â Â the official Korean Central șÚÁÏÉç Agency reported.
North Korea confirmed Thursday that the highly contagious Omicron variant had been detected in the capital Pyongyang, with leader Kim Jong Un ordering nationwide lockdowns.
It was the Northâs first official admission of COVID cases and marked the failure of a two-year coronavirus blockade maintained at great economic cost since the start of the pandemic.
From late April to May 13, more than 524,440 people have fallen sick with fever, KCNA said, with 27 deaths in total.
The report did not specify whether the new cases and deaths had tested positive for COVID-19, but experts say the country will be struggling to test and diagnose on this scale.
North Korea has said only that one of the first six deaths it announced Friday had tested positive for COVID-19.
âItâs not a stretch to consider these âfeverâ cases to all be COVID-19, given the Northâs lack of testing capacity,â said Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute.
âThe actual number of COVID cases could be higher than the fever figures due to many asymptomatic cases,â he said, adding that the pace of infection was growing âvery fast.â
âGreat upheavalâ
Kim said the outbreak was causing âgreat upheavalâ in North Korea, as he oversaw a second Politburo meeting in three days to discuss the situation.
Kim is putting himself âfront and centerâ of the countryâs COVID response, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
âThe language heâs used suggests the situation in North Korea is going to get worse before it gets better,â he told AFP.
âEngagers see this rhetoric preparing the way for international assistance, but Kim may be rallying a population on the verge of further sacrifice,â he added.
The meeting of the nationâs top officials discussed medicine distribution and other ways of âminimizing the losses in human livesâ, KCNA said.
North Korea has a crumbling health system â one of the worst in the world â and no COVID vaccines, antiviral treatment drugs or mass testing capacity, experts say.
But the country will âactively learnâ from Chinaâs pandemic management strategy, Kim said, according to KCNA.
China, the worldâs only major economy to still maintain a zero-COVID policy, is battling multiple Omicron outbreaks â with some major cities, including financial hub Shanghai, under stay-at-home orders.
North Korea has previously turned down offers of COVID vaccines from China and the World Health Organizationâs Covax scheme, but both Beijing and Seoul issued fresh offers of aid and vaccines this week.
Kimâs comments indicate North Korea âwill try getting supplies from China,â said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.
It also looks likely Pyongyang âwill adopt a Chinese-style anti-virus response of regional lockdowns,â Yang added.
So far, Kim said Saturday, North Koreaâs outbreak was not âan uncontrollable spread among regionsâ but transmission within areas that had been locked down, KCNA said.
Nuclear activity
Despite its COVID outbreak, new satellite imagery indicates that North Korea has resumed construction at a long-dormant nuclear reactor.
âI canât tell you when the reactor will be ready to go, but it is about 10x larger than the existing reactor at Yongbyon,â Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies wrote in a Twitter thread Saturday.
It would produce 10 times more plutonium for nuclear weapons, he said, adding: âThis would make good on Kimâs pledge to increase the number of nuclear weapons.â
The United States and South Korea have warned that Kim is preparing to conduct another nuclear test â which would be the regimeâs seventh â and that it could come any day now.
Analysts have warned Kim could speed up his nuclear test plans in a bid to âdistractâ North Koreaâs population from a disastrous COVID-19 outbreak.