The Supreme Leader’s Breakdown: North Korean CoronaVirus Crisis and its Implications for International Politics
By: Wan Mohammad Alvaro Anza
North Korea finally announced its first COVID-19 case (12/5) which directly led to a lockdown issued by none other than Kim Jong Un. It was definitely inevitable that the nation would finally break down and admit its struggle just like other states for the past few years. However, the case of North Korea might be intriguing to analyze as it was a disaster in the making in itself. According to Cheung and Ripley (2022), authors of CNN, the massive outbreak was a result of a military parade that in turn affected 2 million citizens in which they reported it as a “fever”. To put things into perspective, North Korea has 25 million inhabitants of which are not vaccinated since offers of vaccination were denied by the government early in the pandemic. International organizations such as the WHO and the UN Human Rights Agency have warned North Korea that their actions could build up to serious outcomes that would be devastating (McCurry, 2022). The distrust towards North Korea is justifiable, their death reports are lower than 100 and promoting traditional medicine to stop COVID-19 just does not add up, all for the sake of proving the efficacy of their maneuvers.
What is at stake for the international community though? It is clear that a humanitarian crisis would ensue within the nation, institutions may attempt to influence North Korea to open up its borders to apprehend the issue. Despite the US and South Korea offering help, experts fear that North Korea is in no interest to open up their borders as of today (Taylor, 2022). Even if they were to welcome aid, it would be all too late. Vaccination campaigns are not done overnight, the most probable action is to help mitigate the rapid spread of the virus. However, others beg to differ saying that there is indeed a change of reaction from Kim, where he catered to his people and accepted aid from their neighbors, China (De Guzman, 2022). Overall, the case of North Korea’s outbreak may shed a light on the international community’s attempt to soften up the regime, and North Korea may be open to the idea of international aid and cooperation from institutions at the end of the day.
Wan Mohammad Alvaro Anza is a member of the Research and Development division of FPCI UGM. This article expresses his own views and not necessarily those of FPCI UGM
Reference list
Cheung, E. and Ripley, W. (2022). Analysis: North Korea is facing a Covid disaster. What does that mean for Kim Jong Un? [online] CNN. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/05/20/asia/north-korea-covid-outbreak-drive-kim-jong-un-nukes-intl-hnk/index.html [Accessed 20 May 2022].
De Guzman, C. (2022). COVID-19 May Force North Korea to Open Up. [online] Time. Available at: https://time.com/6178501/covid-north-korea-kim-jong-un/ [Accessed 20 May 2022].
Mao, F. (2022). North Korea: ‘First’ Covid cases prompt strict national lockdown. BBC News. [online] 12 May. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61416760.
McCurry, J. (2022). North Korea’s Covid caseload passes 2 million amid global concern about regime’s pandemic plan. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/20/north-koreas-covid-caseload-passes-2-million-amid-global-concern.
Taylor, A. (2022). N. Korea won’t accept help to stave off coronavirus crisis, experts fear. Washington Post. [online] Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/19/north-korea-covid-vaccines-aid-china-united-states-covax/.
