Not Much Deserves To Be Javanese About Handling Pandemics, Kim Jong-un And North Korea May Be One Of Them

Kim Jong-un (Twitter / @ hokkaidosechol)

JAKARTA - Supreme Leader of North Korea (North Korea) Kim Jong-un said he was satisfied with his country's ability to ward off the new coronavirus. He said North Korea had succeeded in stopping the spread of COVID-19 by making breakthroughs. He conveyed this in a meeting of the Labor Party politburo.

The official news agency of North Korea, KCNA quoted Kim Jong-un as saying: We are absolutely preventing the entry of a malignant virus and maintaining a stable anti-epidemic situation despite the worldwide health crisis. Hsl is a shining success.

Despite the complacency of his efforts to maintain anti-epidemic in his country, Friday, July 3, this does not mean that the North Korean people can relax their self-defense. Kim Jong-un warned North Korea to continue to maintain maximum vigilance.

Kim Jong-un also said he would reset and practice stricter anti-epidemic efforts under the prevailing circumstances, namely the trend of recurring infections and the resurgence of the COVID-19 rate in neighboring countries. There are currently no specific prospects for eliminating the dangers of a pandemic.

The North Korean Workers' Party politburo meeting was held on Thursday, July 2. The meeting took place when many countries were struggling to ease restrictions on activities due to the soaring number of COVID-19. In fact, now the world is moving rapidly past a bleak milestone due to the ten million cases of COVID-19 and 500 thousand deaths.

North Korea has also reopened schools. However, North Korea still bans public gatherings and requires people to wear masks in public places. This was conveyed directly by a representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) for WHO.

Meanwhile, the closed country has yet to confirm any cases of COVID-19. North Korea's Ministry of Public Health reports that 922 people have been tested so far, all of whom have tested negative for COVID-19. Hundreds of these people, most of whom are transporters of goods at ports and land borders, are required to be quarantined for monitoring.

The politburo meeting also discussed the ongoing construction of the Pyongyang General Hospital. Kim Jong-un expressed satisfaction with the project and thanked the builders for making progress under unfavorable conditions.

"Kim Jong-un ensures strong national steps have been taken to quickly resolve the problems that arise to complete a brilliant hospital that will provide people with the most advanced medical services and set the world standard."

Skepticism

Public health experts have previously said that it is highly unlikely the virus will make it into North Korea in any form. One of the most likely scenarios is for the virus to enter via the northern border with China, where smuggling of goods is common.

COVID-19 clusters have been identified in northeastern China, including one in Jilin Province in May. Experts also believe North Korea will be particularly vulnerable to the COVID-19 outbreak because of its poor healthcare infrastructure.

But the country is also good at preventing the virus from crossing its borders. North Korea closed permits to people entering the country when the pandemic first emerged a few months ago.

Meanwhile, people in the country are subject to restrictions on activities. The average North Korean is not allowed to travel far from home without government approval.