＜Interview from Inside N. Korea＞“Nobody would know if isolated people die in their homes”…Severe shortages of medical supplies and food…No state rations for people in quarantine

◆ No medicine nor food are given to people in quarantine

―― How is the country quarantining people?

A：  There’s nowhere to go if you have a fever. The authorities say you’ll be put into an isolation facility, but the conditions at the facilities are so bad that they are just putting people in isolation at their homes.

※ “A” is essentially saying here that there’s no food in the isolation facilities.

―― Has anyone around you been put into isolation?

A：  On May 16, a young neighbor boy came down with a fever and was quarantined in his house along with his parents. The authorities didn’t give them food and prevented anyone from approaching them, so nobody would know if they were to die there.

While there are people who say getting COVID-19 is not a problem, many people suffer from nutritional deficiencies, and I’ve heard there’s even people who have lost consciousness after getting the disease. Nobody really knows what COVID-19 does. The authorities call everyone who has a fever a COVID-19 case and are isolating them.

―― There’s been a report that Kim Jong-un donated his stash of household medicine.

A：  The government is spreading propaganda saying that these challenging times can encourage the cultivation of a spirit among the people to help the country. The leadership is telling party cadres to take the lead and donate money and medicine. Even in the city I reside, there are people who have donated money to the party committee along with those who have given rice to their inminban.

※ ASIAPRESS communicates with its reporting partners through Chinese cell phones smuggled into North Korea.