Mick Hartley

North Korea's policy on Covid-19 has been to isolate the country, seal the borders, and ignore all warnings or offers of help. It's a policy driven by paranoia and ignorance. As far as can be ascertained, any signs of coronavirus-like symptoms and the wretched victims are shut away and treated as lepers – "traitors to the Korean people" – and left to die. Only two countries, North Korea and Eritrea, have to date registered not one single vaccination.

An editorial from South Korea's Chosun Ilbo:

So far 500 million doses of coronavirus vaccines have been delivered to 144 countries though the WHO-led COVAX Facility that is intended to help the poorest countries, but North Korea and Eritrea have been left out. It allocated 2.1 million doses of vaccines to North Korea in March of this year but was unable to deliver them due to a lack of preparations. The North asked the WHO in September to deliver another 2.97 million doses of China's Sinovac vaccine to another country because it does not want them.

North Korea claims to have no COVID-19 infections or fatalities after it tested 42,000 people last October who were all negative. Its sole strategy against the virus has been to seal its borders completely. That is also what it did during the outbreaks of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, and Ebola in the past. The North appointed a new ambassador to China in March last year, but the outgoing ambassador, Ji Jae-ryong, remains in Beijing because he cannot go home. China also appointed a new ambassador to North Korea in January, but Wang Yajun has not been able to go to Pyongyang.

The North is also restricting imports for fear of contagion and storing any goods that get through in the open air while it waits for any traces of coronavirus to die out. The National Intelligence Service here said late last year that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un prohibited fishing and salt production for fear that the virus exists in seawater, and the official Rodong Sinmun daily reported on Nov. 4 that "malignant viruses" could spread through snow. The North's policies are being driven by total ignorance.

The problem is that the entire world is trying to return to normal by boosting vaccinations, and it is a mystery to North Korea experts why Pyongyang is refusing free vaccines. The only fault of the North Korean people is that they have the wrong leader.

From what we've learnt about the virus, there's no escape. Unless the country remains isolated for ever there'll come a time when the virus will find its way in, and the North Koreans – unvaccinated and unprepared – will pay a terrible price for their leader's wilful stupidity.