◆ People are most frustrated by lockdowns, which cause food shortages
―― We’ve heard that mobilizations to agricultural areas have been halted.
B: People are still being sent to collective farms within the districts in which they live, but mobilizations to other areas have been stopped.
―― How are the authorities determining people have been infected by COVID-19?
B: They just check people’s temperatures. I’ve never seen anyone do a PCR test. They say that the symptoms of COVID-19 are fevers and coughing; however, they’ve been saying that for a long time. Isn’t COVID-19 just like a summer cold?
――Is there an increasing sense of unrest among the people?
B: People are afraid of lockdowns more than anything else. They fear not being able to get food. They remember their experience of facing starvation. They think: COVID-19 (lockdowns) may cause them to die of starvation.
※ ASIAPRESS communicates with its reporting partners through Chinese cell phones smuggled into North Korea.
- ＜Breaking News from Inside N. Korea＞ A report about the COVID-19 situation from a party member in North Hamgyung Province: Those with fevers are placed in isolation and their apartment buildings are put under lockdown, People continue to go to work and the markets remain open, People are more scared of lockdowns than the disease (2022-05-16)
- ＜Inside N. Korea＞ Theft of car parts is rampant in North Korea. Thieves immobilize vehicles by stealing tires, mirrors to sell on the black market...Few car parts make it over the border due to the pandemic (2022-05-14)
- ＜Urgent ＞ What is happening inside N.Korea with COVID-19？ The government heavily crackdown on hoarding and restrict movement to other areas (2022-05-13)
- ＜Interview with Two N.Koreans＞ What do people think about the military parade, missile launches, and controls on information? (2022-05-09)
- Kim Jong-un has started to make nuclear threats. Did he learn this from Putin’s strategy of escalation? What he’s protecting as his people starve...(ISHIMARU Jiro) (2022-04-30)
