Mick Hartley

The latest from the Daily NK on the pandemic in North Korea:

Public perception of people quarantined with symptoms of COVID-19 is reportedly worsening in North Korea. The North Korean authorities’ quarantine policies, which have fostered an atmosphere of caution and fear, appears to be generating discrimination against the sick.

A Daily NK source in North Korea said Monday that people who go into quarantine with a fever, cough, or other symptoms of COVID-19 are “treated like traitors to the Korean people.”

“People are afraid of even passing in front of the house of a quarantined individual,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. 

Moreover, because the authorities put a “Quarantined” sign in front of the homes of quarantined individuals and control who goes in and out, society stigmatizes the quarantined and their families.

People released from state quarantine facilities — as opposed to simply home quarantine — reportedly face restrictions in their economic activity, suffering ostracization at work even after their release.

There has also been a recent string of starvation deaths involving people released from quarantine facilities.

North Koreans are reportedly saying among themselves that if you enter a quarantine facility, “it’s hard to come out alive, and even if you do, you’ll eventually die of disease or starvation.”…

In a phone conversation with Daily NK, a high-ranking source in North Korea recently said fear of the coronavirus is “dividing people.”

Directives issued by the authorities regarding COVID-19 — including warnings that infection brings “mass death” and calls to “absolutely disinfect things touched by the quarantined,” and “avoid even brushing up against somebody with symptoms” — have gone beyond encouraging caution and are instead generating fear. These measures are stigmatizing the quarantined and leading to discrimination, the source claimed. 

In fact, North Korean authorities have toughened their quarantine standards to enable judicial punishments of people who fail to adhere to quarantine protocols, regarding such negligence as a “political crime.”

During the Third Enlarged Meeting of the Eighth Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea held last month, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said protracted emergency quarantine efforts require a prolonged spirit of “maximum vigilance” and firm adherence to regulations in state efforts to combat the pandemic.

Meanwhile, North Korean authorities continue to claim the country has had no confirmed cases of COVID-19, despite daily calls for stronger quarantine measures.

They need to get hold of Susan Sontag's "Illness as Metaphor". That'd set them straight.