{"id":5937,"date":"2022-08-31T11:35:53","date_gmt":"2022-08-31T02:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/?p=5937"},"modified":"2022-09-03T20:54:28","modified_gmt":"2022-09-03T11:54:28","slug":"korona-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/2022\/08\/politics\/korona-15\/","title":{"rendered":"\uff1cLocal Interviews\uff1eIs N. Korea\u2019s \u201cvictory over COVID-19\u201d legit? (1) Fever patients still emerge\u2026People believe the country has achieved herd immunity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This photo shows the overreaching nature of North Korea\u2019s COVID-19 measures. Soldiers guarding the border near the Tumen River are wearing hazmat suits while repairing a levy. Taken on the Chinese side of the border in October 2020 near Hyesan, Yanggang Province.<\/p><\/div>\n

After officially acknowledging a COVID-19 outbreak in May, the Kim Jong-un regime declared victory over the pandemic on August 10. Following the declaration, the regime claimed that there have been no further COVID-19 cases and significantly relaxed restrictions on movement. What, however, are the realities in the country? ASIAPRESS asked reporting partners in the northern part of the country in late August about the current situation. In this article, ASIAPRESS provides testimony from two reporting partners in Yanggang Province. (KANG Ji-won \/ ISHIMARU Jiro<\/em>)<\/p>\n

\u25c6 Interviews with two reporting partners in Yanggang Province<\/h2>\n

Following the declaration of victory at a national emergency quarantine review meeting on August 10, North Korean authorities have stopped releasing the number of \u201cfever patients due to the malicious virus\u201d that had been published on a daily basis. On August 25, North Korea reported that four suspected fever patients had emerged in Yanggang Province; however, the regime explained that these cases were due to influenza, not the coronavirus.<\/p>\n

ASIAPRESS conducted interviews with two people living in Hyesan about the situation in North Korea following the victory declaration. Based on surveys conducted by ASIAPRESS up until now, many provincial cities are not conducting examinations to see whether people have come down with COVID-19; instead, they are judging whether people have gotten the virus based on whether they have fevers or other symptoms such as coughing.<\/p>\n

\u25c6 People don\u2019t know what PCR tests are<\/h2>\n

\u201cA,\u201d who lives in the downtown of a city in Yanggang Province, works as a businessperson.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2015\u2015 Kim Jong-un declared that North Korea has been victorious over COVID-19. Are there any fever patients anymore?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe number of people with fevers has decreased a great deal, but they still exist. The authorities just treat them as people with colds, however. I haven\u2019t heard of anyone with severe symptoms. Already there\u2019s the perceptions that most people have already gotten COVID-19 at least once.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2015\u2015 Are people put into isolation if they get a fever?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The criteria for being isolated isn\u2019t clear. People are told to self-isolate if they have a fever. People avoid going outside if they have coughing and a fever because if they do, they may be punished (forced isolation, other punishment). In our neighborhood watch unit, we\u2019ve had suspected coronavirus cases emerge in two households recently, but the local doctor just said they were ordinary colds.\u201d
\n\u203b Neighborhood watch units, or inminban, are North Korea\u2019s lowest level administrative unit and are typically made up of 20-30 households.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2015\u2015 Are PCR tests being conducted?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t do those kinds of tests. All they do is take people\u2019s temperatures and ask about people\u2019s conditions to figure out if someone has contracted the virus. People don\u2019t know about PCR tests, and I\u2019ve never seen one. Cadres may know about them, though\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2015\u2015 We\u2019ve heard that disease control restrictions have been loosened in cities near the border with China and on the border with South Korea. Have controls really been loosened?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDisease control measures are still in place, but the authorities no longer punish people for not wearing masks. We\u2019ve been told that we can voluntarily wear masks when we go outside. All they do is tell us to wear masks whenever we take part in group events, such as meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Young soldiers with masks guarding the border in Sinuiju behind a barbed-wire fence. Taken by ASIAPRESS in July 2021 on the Chinese side of the border.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u25c6 There are still fever patients in North Korea<\/h2>\n

\u201cB\u201d is a housewife who lives in the downtown of a city in Yanggang Province.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2015\u2015 Have disease control measures been relaxed?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe authorities are still keeping people on their toes about them here. It seems they\u2019ve been relaxed in other areas, but we\u2019re close to the Chinese border. That being said, only people who have symptoms are having their temperatures checked now. The authorities have told us that if we have a fever, we should take it upon ourselves to report it, medicate ourselves, and self-isolation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u203b Before the \u201cvictory declaration,\u201d neighborhood watch units went around two to three times a day to check people\u2019s temperatures.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2015\u2015 Are the authorities still disinfecting areas around apartments?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve decreased the number of disinfections from four to five a day to just two. The disinfection efforts are mainly happening in places with fever cases. People here probably all got the virus and are now fully recovered. There\u2019s hardly anyone who has serious symptoms in my view.<\/p>\n

However, I\u2019m not sure if these cases are colds or COVID-19 cases. The disease control system is still in place, but people expect things to get better now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u25c6 Relaxing of disease control measures in the China-North Korea border region<\/h2>\n

\u2015\u2015 Are masks required along with temperature checks?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThey tell us to wear masks, but no one gets punished for not wearing them anymore. Recently, the authorities conducted a survey of COVID-19 cases in neighborhood watch units and found that all households had contracted the virus with the exception of one or two families.<\/p>\n

The security checkpoints run by neighborhood watch units no longer conduct entry checks or temperature checks. That being said, the authorities are still monitoring whether people are coming from other areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2015\u2015 What about the situation in workplaces and in markets?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still things that are unclear, but I\u2019ve heard that people are now going back to work full time instead of on shifts as they did before. The authorities are not cracking down on things as much in the markets, either. The authorities, however, are telling people to watch each other and beware of the coronavirus. They are essentially telling people that if they have fevers, they should voluntarily report it and get medical treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2015\u2015 Are restrictions on movement to other areas still in place?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are still strong restrictions on people going to other counties. People can go if they are doing work for their company. There\u2019s no more restrictions on people taking part in farm mobilizations.<\/p>\n

However, people still can\u2019t really move around for personal reasons. One neighbor who wanted to go to Unheung County for something wasn\u2019t allowed to get past a checkpoint because they said he didn\u2019t have the right documents.\u201d (To be continued in the next installment >><\/strong><\/a>)<\/p>\n

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

 <\/p>\n

<\/i><\/span>\uff1cLocal Interview\uff1e Is N. Korea\u2019s \u201cvictory over COVID-19\u201d legit? (2)<\/strong>  \u201cCadres are now contracting the virus\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

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