{"id":5826,"date":"2022-05-20T18:20:27","date_gmt":"2022-05-20T09:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/?p=5826"},"modified":"2022-05-25T16:23:55","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T07:23:55","slug":"korona-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/2022\/05\/society-economy\/korona-6\/","title":{"rendered":"\uff1cInterview from Inside N. Korea\uff1e\u201cNobody would know if isolated people die in their homes\u201d\u2026Severe shortages of medical supplies and food\u2026No state rations for people in quarantine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A young North Korean soldier guarding the border with a face mask lowered to his chin. This photo was taken by ASIAPRESS on the Chinese side of the border in October 2020.<\/p><\/div>\n

COVID-19 continues to spread in North Korea. In the country\u2019s provincial cities, there are signs that the authorities are increasingly cracking down on certain activities and strengthening controls. \u201cA,\u201d a reporting partner in a city in North Hamgyung Province, contacted ASIAPRESS on May 17. This was the second report \u201cA\u201d had provided to ASIAPRESS after another on May 13, and he said that the lack of medical supplies and food was severe in the city he lives in. \u201cA\u201d is a member of the Workers\u2019Party of Korea and works at a mid-sized company. (KANG Ji-won, ISHIMARU Jiro)<\/p>\n

\u25c6 Have train services been halted due to COVID-19?<\/h2>\n

\u2015\u2015 Has there been any changes in the city you reside?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A\uff1a <\/strong> The authorities have tightened controls a lot. People are still going to work and being mobilized to rural areas (nearby), but everyone has to wear masks. The authorities have said they will subject people who take off their masks or walk around with symptoms (of COVID-19) to wartime law.<\/p>\n

Gyuchaldae, or inspection teams, are even patrolling the alleyways of city streets, asking passersby where they are going. There are few people on the streets. At night, nobody is allowed to go outside. The city has almost become locked down.<\/p>\n

\u203b Gyuchaldae are teams tasked with maintaining societal order by cracking down on civilians for certain behaviors. Normally, they crackdown on people wearing improper clothing or those who fail to wear Kim Il-sung badges.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2015\u2015 Are other areas in the same situation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A\uff1a <\/strong> I\u2019m not sure about other areas. The phone service doesn\u2019t work at all, and there\u2019s been a halt in the train service. We are not allowed to use the roads, and we can\u2019t go to other cities or counties.<\/p>\n

\u203b It\u2019s unclear whether the halt in train service is local or national in scale.<\/p>\n

\u25c6 No medicine at pharmacies\u2026markets are closed<\/h2>\n

\u2015\u2015 How is the country\u2019s medical system doing?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A\uff1a <\/strong> The government is giving no food nor medical supplies to the people. There\u2019s no medicine in the pharmacies. Not even cold medicine or domestically produced aspirin. People with money have probably bought them all up and are selling them at high prices.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2015\u2015 Are the markets still open?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A\uff1a <\/strong> The markets were closed on May 15. We have to buy things to eat from people around us, but there\u2019s limits in doing that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2015\u2015 What is the government saying people should do?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A\uff1a <\/strong> On May 15, the inminban (people\u2019s units) told people to buy emergency food and medicine in advance. That\u2019s all they said.
\n<\/p>\n

\u25c6 No medicine nor food are given to people in quarantine<\/h2>\n

\u2015\u2015 How is the country quarantining people?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A\uff1a <\/strong> There\u2019s nowhere to go if you have a fever. The authorities say you\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n

\u203b \u201cA\u201d is essentially saying here that there\u2019s no food in the isolation facilities.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2015\u2015 Has anyone around you been put into isolation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A\uff1a <\/strong> 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\u2019t give them food and prevented anyone from approaching them, so nobody would know if they were to die there.<\/p>\n

While there are people who say getting COVID-19 is not a problem, many people suffer from nutritional deficiencies, and I\u2019ve heard there\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2015\u2015 There\u2019s been a report that Kim Jong-un donated his stash of household medicine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A\uff1a <\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

\u203b ASIAPRESS communicates with its reporting partners through Chinese cell phones smuggled into North Korea.<\/p>\n

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