Quotes of the Day:
President Yoon Suk Yeol @President_KR
Had a great time with @potus in Seoul, sharing our thoughts on the indispensable value of democracy and reaffirming our commitment to a global comprehensive strategic alliance. I'm especially glad to have had the opportunity to build close friendship and trust with the President.
“We cannot expect that everyone, to use the phrase of a decade ago, will talk sense to the American people. But we can hope that fewer people will listen to nonsense. And the notion that this nation is headed for defeat through deficit, or that strength is but a matter of slogans, is nothing but just plain nonsense.”
- John F. Kennedy
The Value of Insurgent/Resistor Intelligence in Unconventional Warfare
“There is no doubt that most partisan actions inflicted damage upon the opposing forces. Some of the damage was severe…. [However,] their second great contribution was in the field of intelligence…. [It] cannot be doubted that the partisans served well as field intelligence, especially after Army intelligence officers had been seconded to all partisan staffs in 1943. The scope was wide—the partisans were everywhere—their location ideal—behind the enemy’s front—and their instructions were detailed—in the Field Service Regulations, the Partisan Handbook, the Guide Book for Partisans, and so on.
We can be almost certain that again and again Russian attacks were mounted in those areas which partisan reports had indicated as vulnerable. The Russians during the war became expert in attacking the enemy’s weakest points: the small front-line gaps in the winter of 1941-2, the front held by German satellite troops at the beginning of the Stalingrad battle; and if there was neither gap nor satellite, it was almost always the seam between two enemy formations which the Red Army selected for its breakthrough attempts…. There was only one source which could consistently direct the Red Army against the weakest link of the enemy front, and this task… was entrusted to the partisans.
We are of course better informed about the value of French partisan intelligence. ‘In fact, the day the battle (in France) began,’ says General De Gaulle, ‘all the German troop emplacements, bases, depots, landing fields and command posts were precisely known, the striking force and equipment counted, the defense works photographed, the minefields spotted…. Thanks to all the information furnished by the French resistance, the Allies were in a position to see into the enemy’s hand and strike with telling effect.’ These words speak for themselves; no finer testimonial could be given.”
- Otto Heilbrunn, Partisan Warfare (1962)
1. Biden-Yoon Summit Love Fest
2. Yoon says S. Korea committed to supply chain resilience under IPEF
3. S. Korea to expeditiously push for 'normalization' of U.S. THAAD unit operation: defense chief
4. N. Korea reports 167,650 new suspected COVID-19 cases, one more death
5. Yoon administration's plan for N. Korea support tied with progress in denuclearization: minister
6. U.S.-led IPEF outweighs China-involving RCEP in population, GDP
7. Yoon says ball is in N.K's court for resumption of talks: CNN
8. Exclusive: South Korea's new leader says age of appeasing North Korea is over
9. South Korean activists stage anti-Biden rallies, call for peace on peninsula
10. Kim, other N. Koreans attend large funeral amid COVID worry
11. Analysis-S.Korea's Yoon Uses Biden Summit as Springboard for Global Agenda as China Looms
12. Five people in N. Pyongan Province sentenced to 15 years for stealing construction supplies
13. Children of N. Korean soldiers are dying from side effects of adults-only medications
14. N. Korea conducts mass testing in Pyongyang, people who refuse testing are labeled "disloyal"
15. Elderly and sick die of COVID-19 complications in North Korean capital
16. ＜Interview from Inside N. Korea＞“Nobody would know if isolated people die in their homes”…Severe shortages of medical supplies and food…No state rations for people in quarantine
17. Schools close as pandemic rages in North Korea
1. Biden-Yoon Summit Love Fest
One description and assessment.
Excerpt:
All in all, it was a show of grand alliance emerging from the ashes of war that the US and Europe together had helped to repel North Korea in 1950. Biden welcomed Yoon’s proposal to seek membership in the US-sponsored Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. But the prospects for Seoul entering the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, an anti-China alliance shaping up with Japan, India, Australia and the US, appear dim at this stage.
China was clearly resentful on all these initiatives, with the official media periodically reminding that South Korea owes its biggest export market to China, and thus it is laying itself vulnerable to economic reprisals. It is doubtful if such big-brother attitude would achieve anything after three decades of China’s refusal to restrain the Pyongyang regime.
South Korea under Yoon has set its eye fixed on repairing relations with Tokyo under its new diplomatic alignment keyed to value-oriented international relations. Yoon will be going to NATO Summit in Madrid in late June.
Biden-Yoon Summit Love Fest
By: Shim Jae Hoon
Ending two days of summit talks in Seoul with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, US President Joe Biden has renewed a commitment that the US would use nuclear weapons and missiles in the event North Korea starts another war on the peninsula.
Biden’s pledge paraphrased the commitment enshrined in the mutual defense treaty existing between the two countries. Reasserting that commitment amounted to a powerful new message to the Kim Jong Un regime as it threatens to restart missile and nuclear test.
Reaffirming this security commitment was a focal point of their two-day talks, at the insistence of President Yoon, elected only 11 days before, replacing a regime considered soft on North Korea’s nuclear threats. In an exceptionally detailed communique issued at the end of the talks on 21 May, Yoon and Biden agreed to resume combined field exercises and hold them more regularly as part of better preparedness.
For the first time in five years, the two allies made it clear that there should be no light between Seoul and Washington over tough responses they should take on Kim Jong Un’s aggressive behavior.
Probably at the insistence of Yoon, Biden also agreed to reactivate what the communique described as a high-level Extended Deterrence Strategy and Consultation Group at the earliest date. It responded to Seoul’s insistence that their alliance should produce a credible deterrence formula. What exactly that should be was left unspecified, except that Korean officials mentioned deployment of strategic assets in emergency, such as long-distance bombers and navy carrier assets. The central message directed at North Korea was that it should not test the US resolve to defend South Korea with all its military capability.
Yoon sought to allay concern over his earlier hawkish stand on North Korea’s threats. He stepped backward from his earlier threat he would respond with missile attacks of his own if the North threatened with ICBM tests. He told Biden Seoul is ready to reward the North with an “audacious” economic aid package if it accepts denuclearization. He and Biden also offered to provide Covid-19 vaccines as the North was hit by waves of the pandemic in recent weeks. No reply came from Pyongyang.
Biden displayed expected caution in connection with the north that wasn’t on display by his predecessor Donald Trump, who flew to the DMZ to meet with Kim. “Whether I Would mee with the leader of North Korea, that would depend on whether he was sincere, whether he was serious,” the president told reporters.
Yoon’s new defense minister Lee Jong Sup is understood to have given firm assurance that a key US missile base at Songju south of Seoul is to be cleared for permanent basing, by forcibly removing a variety of hurdles set up by local protest groups. The US has been complaining about the lack of “unfettered access” to the base area with local protesters placing roadblocks demanding withdrawal.
The base, formerly a golf course, will now be fully readied for basing High Altitude Interceptor Missiles called THAAD. That amounted to a firm rejection of China’s repeated warnings that THAAD missiles constitute a strategic threat to China.
China figured implicitly in a variety of ways during the talks. South Korean officials, long frustrated over China’s refusal to restrain the North, are now lobbying for the restoration of a nuclear “coverage,” meaning the US bringing back some tactical nuclear weapons it had removed from South Korea in 1992 under the nuclear disarmament pact with the then Soviet Union. While this development paved the way for North Korea to secretly start its own nuclear program, China hasn’t been helpful in restraining the North’s ambition.
Yoon and Biden devoted considerable attention to the new agenda of economic security, an idea developing from global supply chain crisis resulting not only from growing tensions in the Indo-Pacific region, but also from Russian invasion of Ukraine. An idea close to US interests, President Biden underscored Washington’s commitment to this issue by making a visit to Samsung Electronics plant his first destination on arrival.
The two leaders toured the world’s largest chipmaking plant at Pyongtaek, not far from the airport, where Samsung chairman Lee Jae Yong unveiled a plan to invest US$7 billion at its Texas plant. Samsung remains the world’s biggest memory chip maker but is reliant on US designs and equipment. The plant visit held an implicit idea that as far as semiconductors are concerned, the US wants to keep its upper hand, not allowing China to overwhelm this area.
Biden and Yoon were in agreement as to how their respective industrial power and prowess should be protected by an alliance shaped on democratic and free market values. Under discussion for sharing respective economic roles were not only semiconductor chips but also new technology involving electric vehicle batteries, artificial intelligence, cyber, climate and nuclear energy technology.
Seoul remains especially keen to collaborate with the US on nuclear power technology as it leads in the global market for small module nuclear reactor for producing cheap and clean energy. Separate from these movements, Hyundai Motor – South Korea’s biggest carmaker – has announced a new US$10 billion investment in the US state of Georgia for producing electric vehicles and components. The Korean business community was on a show of massive support for US investments. President Biden was so delighted he personally sought out Hyundai Motor chairman Chung to thank him.
All in all, it was a show of grand alliance emerging from the ashes of war that the US and Europe together had helped to repel North Korea in 1950. Biden welcomed Yoon’s proposal to seek membership in the US-sponsored Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. But the prospects for Seoul entering the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, an anti-China alliance shaping up with Japan, India, Australia and the US, appear dim at this stage.
China was clearly resentful on all these initiatives, with the official media periodically reminding that South Korea owes its biggest export market to China, and thus it is laying itself vulnerable to economic reprisals. It is doubtful if such big-brother attitude would achieve anything after three decades of China’s refusal to restrain the Pyongyang regime.
South Korea under Yoon has set its eye fixed on repairing relations with Tokyo under its new diplomatic alignment keyed to value-oriented international relations. Yoon will be going to NATO Summit in Madrid in late June.
2. Yoon says S. Korea committed to supply chain resilience under IPEF
(LEAD) Yoon says S. Korea committed to supply chain resilience under IPEF | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES throughout with Yoon's speech; CHANGES headline)
By Lee Haye-ah
SEOUL, May 23 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk-yeol said Monday South Korea will contribute to the newly launched Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) across all sectors and propose ways to cooperate on supply chain resilience, the transition to a digital economy, and clean energy and decarbonization.
Yoon made the remark as he took part virtually in a high-level meeting in Tokyo where U.S. President Joe Biden launched the initiative.
A total of 13 countries announced their participation, with the others being Australia, Brunei Darussalam, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
"The Republic of Korea achieved rapid growth and development on the foundation of a liberal democracy and a market economy system," Yoon said.
"South Korea will share these experiences and cooperate across all sectors covered under IPEF," he said. "In particular, we plan to propose ways to cooperate on strengthening supply chains, transitioning to a digital economy and on clean energy and decarbonization."
Yoon said South Korea will use its capabilities in semiconductors, batteries, future vehicles and other cutting-edge industries to build a mutually beneficial supply chain with countries in the region.
On the transition to a digital economy, he said that South Korea will lead technological innovations in artificial intelligence, data and 6G, and contribute to building digital infrastructure and reducing digital gaps.
For clean energy and decarbonization, Yoon said South Korea will use its advanced skills in nuclear energy, hydrogen and renewable energy to establish carbon-reducing infrastructure and develop technologies through bold investments.
"I believe today's launch of IPEF is a meaningful first step in demonstrating the solidarity and will to cooperate of countries in the region amid a fast-changing economic environment," Yoon said. "I look forward to IPEF being pursued under the principles of openness, inclusivity and transparency."
The U.S. has described IPEF as a regional framework that will ensure supply chain resilience, set the rules of the digital economy and promote clean energy, among other things.
Details of the initiative are still scarce and are expected to be fleshed out during negotiations among its members in the coming months.
IPEF has also been seen as a framework aimed at excluding China from global supply chains, leading to concern Beijing could retaliate against Seoul for joining the framework.
Yoon appeared to dismiss such concern earlier Monday, saying IPEF is different from a free trade agreement.
"This is a process of setting wide-ranging rules for economics and trade in the Indo-Pacific region, so obviously we have to take part in it," he told reporters as he arrived for work at the presidential office.
"If we exclude ourselves from the rule-setting process, it will cause a great deal of harm to the national interest," he said.
hague@yna.co.kr
(END)
3. S. Korea to expeditiously push for 'normalization' of U.S. THAAD unit operation: defense chief
I hope the Yoon administration can make this happen as the Moon administration was all talk and no action.
S. Korea to expeditiously push for 'normalization' of U.S. THAAD unit operation: defense chief | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, May 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will expeditiously push for the "normalization" of a U.S. THAAD missile defense unit here, Seoul's defense minister said Monday, as it has been in the status of "temporary installation" due to an environmental assessment and other reasons.
Lee Jong-sup made the remarks as Seoul and Washington are striving to sharpen joint deterrence against Pyongyang amid growing concerns about possibilities of the regime's additional provocations, like a long-range ballistic missile or nuclear test.
"The normalization of the THAAD unit should have been done (earlier)," Lee said in a meeting with reporters. "We will push for it (to materialize) at an early date."
Deployed in the southern county of Seongju in 2017, the THAAD battery has not been running at its full capacity, with access restricted to the unit due to protesters and pending an environmental impact assessment.
North Korea's series of ballistic missile launches since January have underscored the need to ensure the full operation of the missile defense unit.
During a session of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense earlier this month, U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) Commander Gen. Paul LaCamera called for "unfettered access" to the unit, saying its absence would undermine the alliance's ability to defend South Korea.
Earlier in the day, the defense minister also visited an Army boot camp in Nonsan, 213 kilometers south of Seoul, to encourage new recruits and other military personnel there.
"I will cultivate a military with high morale by creating a safe environment and enhancing troops' welfare, and create a culture where troops' service is respected," Lee was quoted by his office as saying. "Let's work together to remove the military's wrong and bad practices."
sshluck@yna.co.kr
(END)
4. N. Korea reports 167,650 new suspected COVID-19 cases, one more death
Grain of salt.
(LEAD) N. Korea reports 167,650 new suspected COVID-19 cases, one more death | Yonhap News Agency
(ATTN: UPDATES with more details throughout; ADDS photo, byline)
By Yi Wonju
SEOUL, May 23 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Monday around 167,650 new cases of fever and another death have been confirmed, as the country stages what it calls an anti-epidemic war.
More than 167,650 people showed symptoms of fever, with one additional death reported, over a 24-hour period until 6 p.m. the previous day, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported, citing data from the state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters.
The daily number of fever cases has remained below 200,000 for the second consecutive day after reaching 219,030 cases Saturday.
It raised the death toll to 68, with the fatality rate standing at 0.002 percent, the KCNA said.
The fever caseload reported since late April in the nation, with a population of 24 million, came to more than 2.81 million as of 6 p.m. Sunday, of which more than 2.33 million, or 82.9 percent, have recovered and at least 479,400 are being treated, according to the KCNA.
The Rodong Sinmun, the North's main newspaper, on Monday carried several articles stressing the role of the ruling Workers' Party and urged people to strictly follow the party in its antivirus efforts.
The paper highlighted that the North was able to spend their days "safe" for over two years thanks to the party's "strict and swift measures" against the global pandemic.
The reclusive North continues to remain unresponsive to offers from South Korea and the United States on COVID-19 assistance, though observers here have raised concerns over the impoverished country's heath care system.
On May 12, North Korea reported its first COVID-19 case after claiming to be coronavirus-free for over two years and declared the implementation of the "maximum emergency" virus control system.
julesyi@yna.co.kr
(END)
5. Yoon administration's plan for N. Korea support tied with progress in denuclearization: minister
I think the Yoon administration should consider changing the name of the Ministry of Unification to the Ministry of inter-Korean relations. Then it needs to establish a new ministry that is responsible for the in depth and detailed planning and preparation for unification.
Yoon administration's plan for N. Korea support tied with progress in denuclearization: minister | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, May 23 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's minister in charge of inter-Korean relations on Monday reaffirmed an "audacious plan" to help North Korea develop its economy, stated in President Yoon Suk-yeol's inauguration speech, saying it will depend on progress in the denuclearization of the neighbor.
Through the project, the government will push for the joint economic development of the two Koreas and the realization of the "global pivotal nation vision," Unification Minister Kwon Young-se said in his speech to mark the ministry's unification-related education week that runs until Sunday.
He added the weekend summit between Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden in Seoul represented a clear "milestone" for the future of the alliance.
yunhwanchae@yna.co.kr
(END)
6. U.S.-led IPEF outweighs China-involving RCEP in population, GDP
U.S.-led IPEF outweighs China-involving RCEP in population, GDP | Yonhap News Agency
By Oh Seok-min
SEOUL, May 23 (Yonhap) -- The U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) is likely to be a greater economic bloc in the region than the mega trade pact of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) that includes China in terms of population and economic scale, Seoul's industry ministry said Monday.
Earlier in the day, U.S. President Joe Biden formally announced the launch of the new framework, which involves a total of 13 nations, including the United States, South Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, India, and seven out of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The seven ASEAN countries are Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The total population of the 13 countries came to 2.5 billion as of 2020, representing 32.3 percent of the world's total, and their combined gross domestic product (GDP) stood at US$34.6 trillion, or 40.9 percent of the global total, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.
In comparison, the RCEP, which is known as the world's biggest free trade agreement, has 15 members, including South Korea, China, Japan and 10 ASEAN nations. They have 2.27 billion people, and their GDP came to $26.1 trillion, the ministry said in a release.
The IPEF is widely seen as part of the Biden administration's efforts to counter China's growing influence in the region after former President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in 2017.
The IPEF will cover four key areas of fair trade, supply chain resilience, infrastructure and green technology, and tax and anti-corruption, though it will not include any tariff elimination and increased market access as it does not produce a traditional free trade agreement.
As for trade volume with South Korea, the RCEP nations covered 49.4 percent of South Korea's total exports and imports, while the ICEF participants accounted for 39.7 percent of Seoul's total trade volume, the data showed.
The IPEF will also be a larger-scale regional economic cooperation platform than the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
The CPTPP involves 11 nations, including Japan, Canada, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Vietnam. The total population of the member nations came to 510 million, and their GDP was 10.8 trillion won, the data showed. South Korea and China are working to join the CPTPP.
"The active participation of the IPEF from the outset is expected to allow the country to play a leading role over the course of discussions of trade norms in the region," the ministry said in a release.
"It is also expected to help our companies ensure stable and diversified supply chains, boost competitiveness and expand business chances overseas," it added.
Following the official launch, the IPEF member nations held the inaugural ministerial meeting to discuss policy coordination procedures and future directions.
South Korea's Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun called for expediting due discussions based on openness, transparency and inclusiveness to better meet "unprecedented challenges" sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic.
graceoh@yna.co.kr
(END)
7. Yoon says ball is in N.K's court for resumption of talks: CNN
Yoon says ball is in N.K's court for resumption of talks: CNN | Yonhap News Agency
SEOUL, May 23 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk-yeol said Monday that any resumption of dialogue between South Korea and North Korea will be up to Pyongyang, CNN reported.
Yoon made the remark during an interview with the U.S. cable news channel at the presidential office amid a prolonged stalemate in talks between both the South and the North, and between the North and the United States.
"I think the ball is in Chairman Kim's court," he said, referring to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. "It is his choice to start a dialogue with us. I do not want North Korea to collapse. My hope is for North Korea to prosper alongside South Korea."
On North Korea's nuclear weapons program, Yoon said he does not believe its enhancement is "helpful and conducive to maintaining international peace and shared prosperity."
He also said that if North Korea conducts its seventh nuclear test, which has been portrayed in both Seoul and Washington as a near possibility, his government will have a different response from that of the previous Moon Jae-in administration.
"We will deal strongly and firmly with any threat or provocative act from North Korea," he said.
According to CNN, Yoon maintained that South Korea-U.S. military exercises are purely defensive, after he and U.S. President Joe Biden agreed during Saturday's summit to begin discussions on expanding them.
He also said there would be no redeployment of tactical nuclear weapons to the Korean Peninsula, CNN said.
On South Korea's participation in the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, an initiative seen as excluding China from global supply chains, Yoon said he did not believe it was "reasonable for China to be overly sensitive about this matter."
"Even if we strengthen our alliance with the United States in security and technology, it does not mean that we think our economic cooperation with China is unimportant," he said.
hague@yna.co.kr
(END)
8. Exclusive: South Korea's new leader says age of appeasing North Korea is over
Video at the link:
I could not have recommended better words for President Yoon. No more attempting to appease north Korea.
This interview is probably the ebay assessment of the outcome of Yoon-Biden summit.
Excerpt:
"Just to escape temporarily North Korean provocation or conflict is not something that we should do," he said, pointing at the previous liberal administration's conciliatory strategy. "This kind of approach over the past five years, has proven to be a failure."
Exclusive: South Korea's new leader says age of appeasing North Korea is over
CNN · by Jessie Yeung, Paula Hancocks and Yoonjung Seo, CNN
Seoul (CNN)The age of appeasing North Korea is over and any new talks between Seoul and Pyongyang must be initiated by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, South Korea's new conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Monday.
Speaking exclusively to CNN in his first media interview since taking office two weeks ago, Yoon said: "I think the ball is in Chairman Kim's court -- it is his choice to start a dialogue with us."
From his new presidential office at the former defense building in Seoul, Yoon told CNN South Korea and its allies stand ready for any acts of North Korean provocation.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol speaking to CNN from the presidential office on May 23.
"Just to escape temporarily North Korean provocation or conflict is not something that we should do," he said, pointing at the previous liberal administration's conciliatory strategy. "This kind of approach over the past five years, has proven to be a failure."
Read More
Yoon, a former prosecutor and newcomer to politics, has consistently emphasized his tougher stance on North Korea and desire to strengthen the South's military -- a departure from predecessor Moon Jae-in, who had promoted dialogue and peaceful reconciliation.
Despite his stance, Yoon said Monday he didn't want North Korea to "collapse."
"What I want is shared and common prosperity on the Korean Peninsula," he said -- but added, "I do not believe that enhancing [North Korea's] nuclear capability is helpful and conducive to maintaining international peace."
The US, China and the Quad
Given North Korea's recent surge in missile testing and resumed activity at its underground nuclear test site, regional leaders were on edge over the weekend as Yoon met with US President Joe Biden in Seoul.
US officials had warned the North could be preparing for an underground nuclear or intercontinental ballistic missile test during Biden's visit -- his first Asia trip since taking office.
So far, that hasn't happened.
But the two men found common ground, Yoon said, showing CNN a gift received from Biden, a sign that read, "The buck stops here." The quote is often associated with former US President Harry S. Truman. "I don't know how (Biden) knew that I like this statement," Yoon said, placing it in the middle of his desk.
Yoon speaks with CNN's international correspondent Paula Hancocks on May 23 in the presidential office, decorated with a framed photo of Yoon with one of his family's many pets, which include four dogs and three cats.
Throughout his campaign, Yoon emphasized the importance of South Korea's close security alliance with the US -- a push that was on full display after his meeting with Biden, when the US President praised their relationship as reaching "new heights."
After their meeting, the two leaders announced in a joint statement they would begin discussions on restarting and potentially expanding joint military drills that had been halted under Biden's predecessor -- a step likely to draw fury from North Korea.
On Monday, Yoon defended the move as purely defensive. Regular military training is "the basic duty of every military around the world to maintain their readiness," he said.
He added that in the case of an attack, the US would provide assistance including missile defense and its "nuclear umbrella," the promise of protection from a nuclear-armed state to a non-nuclear ally.
However, he ruled out the possibility of "redeploying tactical nuclear weapons on the [Korean] Peninsula."
But South Korea could see its partnership with the US and other regional players expand in other ways.
Yoon said it was in South Korea's "national interest" to join Biden's Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, a newly-unveiled economic plan for like-minded democracies in the region that is widely seen as a counter to China's sway.
He added that South Korea is also considering joining several working groups of the "Quad," or Quadilateral Security Dialogue -- an informal group made up of the US, Australia, India and Japan -- to collaborate in areas including vaccines, climate change and emerging technology. However, he stopped short of saying the South would seek official Quad membership, saying it was something they would "continue to consider."
The Quad has become more active in recent years as concerns grow about China's territorial claims in the region, with all four heads of state set to hold an in-person summit in Tokyo on Tuesday. Beijing has condemned the bloc as an anti-China "clique" emblematic of a "poisonous" Cold War mentality.
For years, South Korea has tried to balance its US alliance with growing economic ties with China -- but Seoul's relations with Beijing have become strained in recent years.
Throughout his campaign, Yoon took a cooler tone than his predecessor toward China, portraying the country as an economic rival.
When asked about the risk of provoking Beijing's fury by forging closer ties with the US, Yoon brushed off the threat of economic retaliation.
"Even if we strengthen our alliances with the United States in security and technology, it does not mean that we think our economic cooperation with China is unimportant," he said. Besides, he added, both South Korea and China depend on their mutual cooperation -- "so I do not believe it is reasonable for China to be overly sensitive about this matter."
CNN · by Jessie Yeung, Paula Hancocks and Yoonjung Seo, CNN
9. South Korean activists stage anti-Biden rallies, call for peace on peninsula
"Some 100 peace activists"
South Korean activists stage anti-Biden rallies, call for peace on peninsula
By Hermes Auto The Straits Times3 min
Activists hold a candlelight vigil calling for peace on the Korean peninsula during US President Joe Biden's visit to South Korea on May 20, 2022. PHOTO: REUTERS
SEOUL (XINHUA) - South Korean civic and student activists held protest rallies throughout US President Joe Biden's three-day trip to the Asian country, calling for peace on the Korean peninsula.
A group of students from the Korean University Progressive Union on Sunday (May 22) held an anti-Biden rally near the US military base in Seoul's central district of Yongsan, where Mr Biden reportedly planned to meet staff members from the US embassy in Seoul.
"Leave this land, Biden, who escalates a war crisis on the Korean Peninsula," the student activists chanted, raising signs opposing South Korea-US joint military exercises and the South Korea-US-Japan military alliance.
"From the day Biden arrived here, university students continued to shout (in) anti-American voices. It reflects the desire of people. Nobody wants war in this land. Everybody wants peace," a student at the rally said.
The student activists followed Mr Biden during his tour to the air base where he first arrived in South Korea and later departed for Japan; a hotel where he stayed; and the presidential office where he held talks with South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol.
Police were deployed at the rallies to prevent any untoward incidents. One student was taken to a hospital after a tussle on Friday night with policemen who blocked the rally near the hotel where Mr Biden was allegedly staying, according to local broadcaster YTN.
Just before Mr Biden's visit to Seoul, representatives from a total of 155 civic groups held a press conference, saying the South Korean government should adopt balanced diplomacy, not lopsided diplomacy that could bring a new Cold War confrontation to the Korean peninsula.
The civic activists alleged that if South Korea joins the US-centred military alliance - which excludes others - it would negatively affect the prospects for peace and denuclearisation on the Korean peninsula. Strengthened military cooperation between South Korea, the United States and Japan would result in the rearmament and revived militarism in Japan, the civic activists claimed.
They urged Mr Yoon and Mr Biden to stop war and confrontation and create an order of peace and coexistence.
The Korean peninsula remains in a technical state of war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.
A series of other peace rallies were conducted by civic and student activists during the US President's stay.
The People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) group held a candlelight vigil on Friday near Gwanghwamun square in Seoul, calling for Mr Yoon and Mr Biden to choose peace rather than military alliances and an arms race.
Some 100 peace activists from the PSPD and seven other civic groups staged similar rallies on Saturday near the presidential office in Yongsan, to which the South Korean president relocated his office from the Blue House after taking office on May 10.
10. Kim, other N. Koreans attend large funeral amid COVID worry
Maskless Kim Jong-un.
Kim, other N. Koreans attend large funeral amid COVID worry
AP · by HYUNG-JIN KIM · May 23, 2022
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A huge number of North Koreans including leader Kim Jong Un attended a funeral for a top official, state media reported Monday, as the country maintained the much-disputed claim that its suspected coronavirus outbreak is subsiding.
Since admitting earlier this month to an outbreak of the highly contagious omicron variant, North Korea has only stated how many people have fevers daily and identified just a fraction of the cases as COVID-19. Its state media said Monday that 2.8 million people have fallen ill due to an unidentified fever but only 68 of them died since late April, an extremely low fatality rate if the illness is COVID-19 as suspected.
The official Korean Central News Agency said Kim attended the funeral Sunday of Hyon Chol Hae, a Korean People’s Army marshal who played a key role in grooming him as the country’s next leader before Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, died in late 2011.
ADVERTISEMENT
In what was one of the country’s biggest state funerals since his father’s death, a bare-faced Kim Jong Un carried Hyon’s coffin with other top officials who wore masks before he threw earth to his grave with his hands at the national cemetery. Kim and hundreds of masked soldiers and officials also deeply bowed before Hyon’s grave, state TV footage showed.
State TV earlier showed thousands of other masked soldiers clad in olive-green uniforms gathered at a Pyongyang plaza taking off their hats and paying a silent tribute before a funeral limousine carrying Hyon’s body left for the cemetery. KCNA said “a great many” soldiers and citizens also turned out along streets to express their condolences.
Kim often arranges big funerals for late senior officials loyal to his ruling family and shows a human side in a possible bid to draw the support of the country’s ruling elite and boost internal unity.
KCNA quoted Kim as saying that “the name of Hyon Chol Hae would be always remembered along with the august name of Kim Jong Il.” He wept when he visited a mourning station established for Hyon last week.
During Sunday’s funeral, most people, except for Kim Jong Un and honor guards, wore masks. The Norths’ ongoing outbreak was likely caused by the April 25 military parade and related events that drew large crowds of people who wore no masks.
North Korea maintains a nationwide lockdown and other stringent rules to curb the virus outbreak. Region-to-region movement is banned, but key agricultural, economic and other industrial activities were continuing in an apparent effort to minimize harm to the country’s already moribund economy.
KCNA said Monday that 167,650 new fever cases had been detected in the past 24-hour period, a notable drop from the peak of about 390,000 reported about one week ago. It said one more person died and that the fever’s fatality rate was 0.002%.
“All the people of (North Korea) maintain the current favorable turn in the anti-epidemic campaign with maximum awareness, in response to the call of the party central committee for defending their precious life and future with confidence in sure victory and redoubled great efforts,” KCNA said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Experts question the North’s tally, given North Korea’s 26 million people are mostly unvaccinated and about 40% are reportedly undernourished. The public health care system is almost broken and chronically short of medicine and supplies. In South Korea, where most of its 52 million people are fully vaccinated, the fatality rate of COVID-19 was 0.13% as of Monday.
South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers last week that some of the fever cases tallied by North Korea include people suffering from other illnesses like measles, typhoid and pertussis. But some civilian experts believe most of the cases were COVID-19.
Before admitting to the omicron outbreak on May 12, North Korea had insisted it was virus-free throughout the pandemic. It snubbed millions of vaccines offered by the U.N.-backed COVAX distribution program and has not responded to offers of medicine and other aid from South Korea and the United States.
ADVERTISEMENT
Some observers say North Korea would only receive assistance from China, its last major ally, because Western aid shipments could hurt Kim’s leadership as he’s repeatedly called for “a self-reliance” to fight against U.S.-led pressure campaigns.
___
Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.
AP · by HYUNG-JIN KIM · May 23, 2022
11. Analysis-S.Korea's Yoon Uses Biden Summit as Springboard for Global Agenda as China Looms
Analysis-S.Korea's Yoon Uses Biden Summit as Springboard for Global Agenda as China Looms
By U.S. News Staff U.S. News & World Report3 min
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol arrive for a state dinner at the National Museum of Korea, in Seoul, South Korea, May 21, 2022. Lee Jin-man/Pool via REUTERSReuters
By Josh Smith
SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea’s new president, Yoon Suk-yeol, used a largely successful summit with U.S. President Joe Biden over the weekend to lay the foundation for his goal of enabling South Korea to play a more active role around the world.
Inaugurated on May 10, Yoon has said his main foreign policy goal will be to make South Korea a “global pivotal state” with a focus on promoting freedom, peace, and prosperity based on its liberal democratic values and cooperation.
That closely mirrors Biden's call for "like-minded" democracies with shared values to work together, allowing the pair to commit to a strikingly long list of areas for cooperation, setting the bar high on promises but also underscoring how Yoon sees closer U.S. ties as his path toward global engagement.
"Yoon has clearly tried to use this visit as a way to launch his 'global pivotal state' agenda," said Ramon Pacheco Pardo, the Korea chair at the Brussels School of Governance.
The two leaders signalled in a summit joint statement support for Biden’s framework for economic cooperation in Asia even before it was unveiled, pledged cooperation on everything from international cooperation on nuclear power to cybersecurity, and included mentions of the Taiwan, the South China Sea, and Russia's war in Ukraine.
The language on Taiwan and the South China Sea was not a dramatic change from that of Yoon's liberal and generally cautious predecessor, Moon Jae-in, but that could change, Pacheco Pardo said.
"I do think that Yoon will be willing to join condemnation of China as part of groups of like-minded countries in due course," he said.
Pacheco Pardo was sceptical that South Korea would soon change its policy of providing only non-lethal aid to Ukraine, and said that there was no real pressure from NATO for the Asian partner to provide weapons.
But other analysts saw signs that the language on Ukraine could be setting the political groundwork for Yoon to boost aid.
"Ukraine is seen by Washington as a litmus test for its coalition of countries with shared values, so I wouldn't be surprised if there are more discussions down the road on South Korea providing aid, including possibly weapons," said Mason Richey, a professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.
More vocal support for Ukraine and improving relations with fellow U.S. ally Japan are two areas in which Yoon may most differ from his predecessor, and both will play well in Washington, he added.
CHINA'S SHADOW
North Korea’s increased weapons testing threatens to undermine Yoon’s attempts to look beyond the peninsula, however, and like Biden, he will have to prove to the domestic audience that foreign engagement is improving lives at home.
Yoon's focus on economic cooperation and his commitment to join the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), a programme that Biden launched in Japan on Monday, to bind regional countries more closely through common standards in areas including supply-chain resilience, clean energy, infrastructure and digital trade, were particularly notable, Pacheco Pardo said.
"Joining IPEF, in my view, is more significant than we may realise because China explicitly asked Korea not to do so," he said.
China is South Korea's biggest trading partner, and South Korea has previously faced economic retaliation for defying China.
Likely with those interests in mind, Yoon's team stressed that the IPEF did not explicitly exclude China and that it was natural and a vital national interest for South Korea to participate in that kind of rule-making process.
South Korea intends to develop its partnership with China through "qualitative and quantitative economic cooperation", the foreign ministry said.
"The IPEF and efforts to build a norms-based order, etcetera, are partly intended to keep China in check, but by not directly mentioning the word 'China', they seemed to try to keep the principle of mutual respect," said James Kim, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.
Some opposition lawmakers criticised Yoon for risking antagonising China but Kim said the president might have been making tacit acknowledgment of rising anti-China sentiment among many South Koreans.
(Reporting by Josh Smith; Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Soo-hyang Choi)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
12. Five people in N. Pyongan Province sentenced to 15 years for stealing construction supplies
This is not corruption but survival.
Excerpts:
Ultimately, a public trial was held in front of the Sakju County library on May 2, with about 100 local residents in attendance. Five individuals, including officials in charge of construction and people involved in supply-related work at the farms, were given 15-year sentences.
The court’s judgment said that the Sakju County construction project was meant to build more homes to improve living conditions for local residents, and to do what the accused did in such tough times amounted to an “unforgivable betrayal of the nation.”
In particular, the judgment condemned farms and individuals who pilfered state property with little care for national construction projects for their “frighteningly toxic ideology” that “everything is alright as long as they themselves did well,” noting that such behavior would be even more harshly punished going forward.
The families of the five people who were punished were exiled to a remote area in the mountains, the source added.
Five people in N. Pyongan Province sentenced to 15 years for stealing construction supplies - Daily NK
The families of the five people who were punished were exiled to a remote area in the mountains, a source told Daily NK
This file photo shows a scene from Sakju County, North Pyongan Province. (Daily NK)
Several residents of North Pyongan Province’s Sakju County were given heavy sentences during a recent public trial aimed at punishing those involved in stealing supplies meant for a house building project.
According to a source in North Pyongan Province last Wednesday, Sakju County announced plans last year to build housing in line with the policies set out by the Eighth Party Congress and then moved forward with obtaining supplies to build the new homes.
“Unfortunately, those in charge of the construction and supply personnel either misused the supplies for agriculture or pilfered them,” he said.
Sakju County received complete shipments of supplies needed to build the housing, including cement and steel, from the provincial government. However, locals complained that builders had only done the groundbreaking for the project, with no progress made on constructing the actual homes.
North Pyongyang Province’s party committee responded by instructing the provincial police to investigate the matter. As provincial and county police looked into the state of the construction project, they discovered that supplies had been pilfered by farms tasked with building the homes.
The police found that Sakju County had carried out only one-fourth of the project, with farms building only five or so of the roughly 20 homes each were tasked with building. Farm managers had sold most of the supplies and were using the proceeds for agricultural preparations.
Sakju County had also been ordered to build production-related facilities along with factory housing. No progress had been made with this, either. An investigation discovered that factory officials and supply personnel had pilfered the supplies for alternative uses or sold them to fund lavish lifestyles.
Ultimately, a public trial was held in front of the Sakju County library on May 2, with about 100 local residents in attendance. Five individuals, including officials in charge of construction and people involved in supply-related work at the farms, were given 15-year sentences.
The court’s judgment said that the Sakju County construction project was meant to build more homes to improve living conditions for local residents, and to do what the accused did in such tough times amounted to an “unforgivable betrayal of the nation.”
In particular, the judgment condemned farms and individuals who pilfered state property with little care for national construction projects for their “frighteningly toxic ideology” that “everything is alright as long as they themselves did well,” noting that such behavior would be even more harshly punished going forward.
The families of the five people who were punished were exiled to a remote area in the mountains, the source added.
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
13. Children of N. Korean soldiers are dying from side effects of adults-only medications
Incompetence, ignorance, or desparation within a failed haelath care system?
Children of N. Korean soldiers are dying from side effects of adults-only medications - Daily NK
At one unit, a medic prescribed a small dose of the sleep medication Dimedrol to a two-year-old, but the next morning the child died
North Korean children play on a playground in Namyang, North Hamgyong Province in this photo taken in July 2018 (Daily NK).
As fever patients under the age of 10 die at relatively high rates in North Korea, significant numbers of children are dying from side effects of medication, Daily NK has learned.
A North Korean military source in Nampo told Daily NK on Friday that children have been virtually abandoned during the COVID-19 pandemic. “Among military families of the headquarters of the Third Corps, more children than adults have died,” he said. “This is because most were already undernourished, and because they were given medications meant for adults.”
That young children are dying from side effects at high rates appears connected with the poor state of affairs in North Korea, which lacks a proper healthcare system for children.
According to the source, the two-year-old daughter of a soldier at the headquarters of the Third Corps died on May 17 after suffering from a high fever.
The family of the soldier was in home quarantine. An army medic told the parents to give their daughter a quarter dose of the fever medication paracetamol, which they did.
When the daughter continued to cry and the fever failed to break, the medic prescribed a small dose of the sleep medication Dimedrol. They did as instructed, but early the next morning, their daughter stopped breathing and died.
“Neither paracetamol or Dimedrol are for children, and giving them to her caused her death,” said the source. “Among military families of the Third Corps, there have been frequent deaths of children like this after they came down with COVID-19 or some other fever.”
Though there have been several infant deaths among military families of the Third Corps, these are not counted in Nampo’s statistics regarding infant fever deaths. Instead, they are only included in separate statistics maintained by the army’s health bureau.
The source said many children of military families have yet to receive tuberculosis vaccinations. “It’s been a while since I’ve heard of or seen a drug for children, and since the state drug prescription system collapsed in the 1990s, children have been dropping dead faster than adults,” he said.
Because the healthcare system for children, including infant vaccinations, has collapsed, children with relatively weak immunity or tolerance compared to adults have appeared vulnerable to infectious diseases.
Military families of the Third Corps have been calling for the punishment of the army medic who prescribed paracetamol and Dimedron to a two-year-old child. However, the corps infirmary is ruling this out, saying the children’s parents agreed to the treatment.
“As it’s been a while since the system for prescribing separate medicines for adults and children disappeared, parents themselves think it’s alright just to give children smaller doses of adult medications,” said the source. “Since the healthcare system for children is so poor, these incidents inevitably keep repeating.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
14. N. Korea conducts mass testing in Pyongyang, people who refuse testing are labeled "disloyal"
Any act contrary to party policy is disloyal.
N. Korea conducts mass testing in Pyongyang, people who refuse testing are labeled "disloyal" - Daily NK
Doctors, paramedics and nurses are carrying out testing at testing centeres, with even medical school students and interns mobilized to work
North Korea published this photo of disease control officials in protective suits on May 13. (Rodong Sinmun)
North Korean authorities are conducting mass testing in Pyongyang and other areas of the country to track down fever patients, and people who refuse testing are labeled “disloyal,” Daily NK has learned.
“The authorities are mainly relying on taking people’s temperatures for coronavirus testing,” a source in Pyongyang told Daily NK on Friday. “If someone has a fever for more than two days along with coughing and difficulty breathing, they are designated to be quarantined.”
In other words, North Korean officials are screening people based on whether someone has a fever or how serious the fever is and not with diagnostic equipment. In fact, the authorities are using the term “person with fever” rather than “confirmed case of COVID-19.”
“If a sick person’s temperature exceeds 38 degrees Celsius, they are sent to an isolation facility, no questions asked,” the source continued, adding, “If a fever persists for more than two days, people must self-isolate for seven days.”
The source’s report suggests that those with a high fever of 38 degrees or more are transferred to separate isolation facilities, while those who have a mild fever lasting more than a couple days are quarantined at home.
Daily NK recently reported that North Korea had set up temporary quarantine facilities in the Rakrang and Unjong districts of Pyongyang.
“People who have a fever must self-report [their condition to the authorities],” the source said. “Those who think they have a fever fall in the category of having to be tested along with their families and even their neighbors.”
Officials visit homes to check fevers, while those who refuse testing are labeled “disloyal”
North Korean officials are also visiting people’s homes to check their temperatures.
“The head of our neighborhood sanitation and quarantine team is conducting fever checks at people’s homes together with the head of the local inminban [people’s unit] and one other person. They are using a device that looks like a gun to measure people’s temperatures, and order people to stay at home if their temperature exceeds a certain level,” a Daily NK source in North Pyongan Province said last Friday. “Other than the device to measure temperatures, they don’t use any other diagnostic equipment.”
According to him, the officials “all wear masks when moving around, and when they carry out tests at people’s homes they tell them to wear masks. People from the inminban go to every house during daily inspections while conducting the testing to see who has died and who isn’t at home, and they report what they find [to Pyongyang] through the Ministry of State Security.”
Moreover, a source in South Pyongan Province told Daily NK that, “Officials from local general hospitals and sanitation and quarantine stations are traveling around their jurisdictions taking temperatures.”
The South Pyongan Province-based source explained that these efforts are aimed at making up confirmed cases rather than identifying infected people. According to him, local officials are overreacting to the government’s order to find people showing fevers and other symptoms of COVID-19 before putting them under strict quarantine and actively monitoring their medical conditions.
“The atmosphere is brutal because people refusing to take part in the testing are being punished,” the source continued, adding, “The local party committee, as well as local security agencies, are labeling people who avoid getting tested because they don’t have any symptoms as ‘disloyal.’”
Meanwhile, COVID-19 PCR testing with saliva has been conducted in some parts of Pyongyang.
“In Pyongyang’s Central District and the area near the Taedong River area known as ‘Hospital Village,’ they used a test that required people to spit,” the source in Pyongyang said. “I’m not sure whether these kinds of tests have been conducted in other parts of the city or different areas of the country.”
Current COVID-19 diagnostic test methods include nasopharyngeal PCR, saliva PCR, and rapid antigen testing. According to data released by the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the sensitivity of a PCR test with saliva is 92%, slightly lower than that of non-pharyngeal PCR (a sensitivity of 98% or higher), but higher than rapid antigen testing (90%).
Testing centers operate 24 hours-a-day with even medical students mobilized to work
According to the source in Pyongyang, North Korean authorities are currently setting up designated testing centers throughout the city and are mobilizing all medical staff to test the city’s residents. The testing centers are operating 24 hours a day.
“There are testing centers designated by the disease control authorities in each region and district,” the source said, adding, “They have set up temporary tents or sanitation and quarantine centers in front of emergency rooms of clinics and district, county, and city hospitals.”
Doctors, doctors’ assistants, and nurses are carrying out the testing at these centers, and even medical school students and interns have been mobilized to work.
Amid all this activity, North Korean authorities are paying close attention to trends within the city to ensure there is no unrest among the people.
“Pyongyang medical and quarantine staff are telling people that just having a fever doesn’t mean you have come down with COVID-19, and the leadership is spreading the word that only medical staff can determine or diagnose whether a case is COVID-19 or not,” the source said. “The authorities are putting particular emphasis on ensuring no one jumps to conclusions or scares people with careless words. Nevertheless, there is a considerable number of people in the city who are full of anxiety.”
North Korea appears to have disclosed the numbers of COVID-19 cases in the country as a way to ensure people do not panic or cause unrest. This may also explain why North Korean media outlets are talking about scientifically unproven folk remedies to treat the coronavirus.
The translator requested anonymity. Edited by Robert Lauler.
Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
15. Elderly and sick die of COVID-19 complications in North Korean capital
Obviously the north Korean medical system is unable to cope with COVID.
Elderly and sick die of COVID-19 complications in North Korean capital
The authorities have mobilized medical students to help out overwhelmed doctors in the city’s hospitals.
By Chang Gyu Ahn and Soram Cheon
2022.05.20
North Korean authorities are mobilizing medical students in the capital of Pyongyang to help in hospitals suddenly overwhelmed with cases of COVID-19, sources in the country told RFA. Even so, deaths continue to rise due to lack of proper care and from counterfeit medicines as treatment options remain limited in the impoverished and isolated country.
After more than two years of denying any North Korean had contracted the coronavirus, the country finally announced its first cases and deaths last week, saying the Omicron variant had begun to spread among participants of a large-scale military parade in late April.
The long-term denial means doctors in the capital’s many hospitals are not up to speed on how to treat coronavirus, a Pyongyang resident told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“As a result, some elderly people infected with Omicron and people with chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes died because they did not receive proper treatment,” said the source.
“In addition, there are a number of people who have died due to side effects from medicines they purchased on their own without proper prescriptions,” the source said.
Pyongyang, with 2.9 million residents living relatively closely to one another, has been hit the hardest by the pandemic.
“They declared an emergency and mobilized doctors from each hospital in the city, then they even began mobilizing med students,” a Pyongyang resident told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“All residents in the city are subject to intensive medical screenings. They must check their temperature and report any abnormal symptoms twice a day,” the source said.
The demand for fever reducers and antibiotics has greatly increased. Many people travel from pharmacy to pharmacy in search of acetaminophen, ibuprofen and amoxicillin, said the source. Antibiotics have no effect on viral diseases like COVID-19.
“Authorities began to release wartime emergency medicines and have placed uniformed military doctors at pharmacies to prevent stealing. So now it is possible to buy necessary medicines,” said the source.
As home to most of the country’s privileged elites, Pyongyang has superior health care facilities than exist in the provinces.
In the city of Hamhung, in the eastern province of South Hamgyong, people had been crowding hospitals weeks before the declared emergency, complaining of coronavirus symptoms, a medical source there told RFA.
“There are provincial hospitals and city hospitals, as well as health institutions and facilities in provincial cities like Hamhung. However, in the case of county-level hospitals, there are only a few beds with poor medical equipment and facilities, and inexperienced doctors,” the second source said.
“I am worried about whether they can cope with it. It will be of great help if the authorities receive aid from the U.N. or medicines made in South Korea, which are effective and safe,” the source said.
About 2.2 million people have been hit by outbreaks of fever, 65 of whom have died, according to data based on reports from North Korean state media published by 38 North, a site that provides analysis on the country and is run by the U.S.-based think tank the Stimson Center. Around 1.5 million are reported to have made recoveries, while 754,800 are undergoing treatment.
The country has only a handful of confirmed COVID-19 cases, which 38 North attributed to insufficient testing capabilities. Data published on the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center showed North Korea with only one confirmed COVID-19 case and six deaths as of Friday evening.
Accurate reporting
The numbers provided by state media are likely accurate, Ahn Kyungsoo, head of dprkhealth.org, a South Korea-based website that tracks North Korea’s healthcare situation.
But Ahn said that not all “fever” cases are necessarily coronavirus.
“In the middle of April is when seasons change in Korea. The North Korean authorities have released statistics since the end of April. There are inevitably a lot of people who develop fevers that time of the year due to the change of seasons…. And the main symptoms… are almost the same as those of cold patients who get ill in-between seasons,” he said.
“The cumulative number of people with fever that the North Korean authorities are talking about is not an individual person with a confirmed case of COVID-19. Their definition of ‘cured’ does not mean the full recovery from COVID-19, but only that fever symptoms have disappeared. These are the people who have been released from quarantine,” he said, adding that test kits in North Korea are scarce, and tallies can only be kept by observing symptoms like fever, body aches, coughing and sore throats.
Ahn said that even with a lot of help from the international community in the form of donated vaccines, North Koreans would still have trouble inoculating everyone because of a lack of cold storage and an inability to quickly transport vaccines to most parts of the country.
“Also, it takes time for the vaccine to take effect after one is vaccinated. From the perspective of North Korea, it will take quite a while even if they get the vaccine tomorrow. So, I think getting as many oral treatments as possible would be more advantageous than the vaccine.”
Translated by Claire Lee and Leejin J. Chung
16. ＜Interview from Inside N. Korea＞“Nobody would know if isolated people die in their homes”…Severe shortages of medical supplies and food…No state rations for people in quarantine
Just a terrible tragedy in north Korea. Kim Jong-un is responsible for this not only for prioritizing nuclear weapons and missiles over the welfare of the Korean people as well as refusing to respond to offers of COVID aid form the South, the US, and the international community. And he is responsible for th collapsed medical system as well.
＜Interview from Inside N. Korea＞“Nobody would know if isolated people die in their homes”…Severe shortages of medical supplies and food…No state rations for people in quarantine
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.
COVID-19 continues to spread in North Korea. In the country’s provincial cities, there are signs that the authorities are increasingly cracking down on certain activities and strengthening controls. “A,” a reporting partner in a city in North Hamgyung Province, contacted ASIAPRESS on May 17. This was the second report “A” 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. “A” is a member of the Workers’Party of Korea and works at a mid-sized company. (KANG Ji-Won, ISHIMARU Jiro)
◆ Have train services been halted due to COVID-19?
―― Has there been any changes in the city you reside?
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.
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.
※ 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.
―― Are other areas in the same situation?
I’m not sure about other areas. The phone service doesn’t work at all, and there’s been a halt in the train service. We are not allowed to use the roads, and we can’t go to other cities or counties.
※ It’s unclear whether the halt in train service is local or national in scale.
◆ No medicine at pharmacies…markets are closed
―― How is the country’s medical system doing?
The government is giving no food nor medical supplies to the people. There’s 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.
―― Are the markets still open?
The markets were closed on May 15. We have to buy things to eat from people around us, but there’s limits in doing that.
―― What is the government saying people should do?
On May 15, the inminban (people’s units) told people to buy emergency food and medicine in advance. That’s all they said.
17. Schools close as pandemic rages in North Korea
Just another indication of the severity of the COVID disution in north Korea.
Schools close as pandemic rages in North Korea
Students are ordered to attend remote learning, but spotty electricity and lack of computers raise big challenges.
By Hyemin Son, Jieun Kim and Jeong Eun Lee
2022.05.19
As COVID-19 cases dramatically increase in North Korea’s military academies and secondary schools, the government has ordered students to begin remote learning, a daunting proposal in a land where most homes lack consistent supplies of electricity, much less online capabilities, sources in the country told RFA.
After more than two years of denying anyone in the country had contracted the coronavirus, North Korea finally announced its first cases and deaths last week, saying the disease had begun to spread among participants of a large-scale military parade in late April.
Sources in the capital Pyongyang told RFA’s Korean Service that confirmed cases were identified at two premier military academies in the city, both of which sent participants to the parade.
“At the beginning of last week there were only five university students who were confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 at Kim Jong Il University of Military Politics, but now that number has increased to dozens,” a source from the city told RFA Tuesday on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“The National Emergency Quarantine Command is conducting testing on university students who have symptoms like a severely high fever and shortness of breath. The students who test positive are immediately taken by ambulance to an isolation facility on the outskirts of Pyongyang,” he said.
The roughly 300 students from Kim Jong Il University who participated in the military parade are being quarantined at a single dormitory, according to the source.
“The students’ temperatures are being checked every day and they are given fever reducers when necessary,” said the source.
The authorities have closed areas surrounding the university and have ordered students to stay in their dormitories, even if they were not part of the military parade, the source said.
Authorities also tested parade participants from the city’s other major military university, Kim Il Sung Military University, another source in the city told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.
“A friend of mine who attends the university told me over the phone that more than 30 students that were classified as confirmed cases are being quarantined in isolation facilities at the outskirts of Pyongyang,” the second source said.
The 300 students from Kim Il Sung Military University who participated in the parade were also put in quarantine and are undergoing daily testing.
“The area around Kim Il Sung Military University is currently restricted. The school is closed and all students and faculty must not leave their dormitories until the end of the month,” the second source said.
Sources reported that the Central Committee is adequately supplying medicines and masks, including fever-reducing medicines, to students quarantined at both universities, where confirmed cases are rising.
The virus is affecting more than the military’s educational institutions. Authorities ordered all schools nationwide to begin distance learning.
“All students in Pyongyang have stopped going to school for in-person classes and are participating in distance learning at home,” an official from Pyongyang told RFA Tuesday on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.
“The frequent power outages and hiccups in the intranet network are causing difficulties, though.”
North Korea does not allow its citizens to connect to the global Internet, but the government operates an intranet where citizens fortunate to have devices capable of logging on are able to visit government-approved websites, all of which are hosted within the country.
“On May 2nd, there was a commotion when five out of 23 students of a class at a middle school in Moranbong district showed symptoms of high fever and coughing,” the official said.
“Other students in different classes showed the same symptoms of high fever and coughing, so the school immediately stopped classes and had all students return home under the direction of the National Emergency Quarantine Command,” he said.
On May 11th the Ministry of Education ordered all schools in the capital to stop in-person learning and change to distance learning, the official said.
“The [authorities] confirmed that the first middle school students to show symptoms were those who had been mobilized to participate in the parade as spectators in the crowd,” the source said.
The orders to begin distance learning were sent all over the country, but a resident who lives north of Pyongyang in South Pyongan province told RFA that few students have the resources necessary for remote classes.
“In general, only 2-3% of students have computers at home, so distance learning is meaningless, unless they are elite students of No. 1. high schools,” she said.
Aid reluctanceNorth Korean authorities have not responded to a South Korean proposal to cooperate in efforts to combat the pandemic. Observers said Pyongyang is unlikely to accept humanitarian aid from the international community, because it would be an admission of the country’s leader Kim Jong Un’s failure to control the virus.
North Korea may be unwilling to work closely with South Korea in particular because of a change in administration in Seoul earlier this month, Hong Min, the director of the North Korea Research Division at the Seoul-based Korea Institute for National Unification, told RFA.
President Yoon Seok-yeol is expected to take a harder line in respect to North Korea than predecessor Moon Jae-in, who advocated engagement with the North.
Accepting help from other countries would be a bad look for Kim Jong Un, Ho Hong Kim of the Washington-based Institute for National Security Strategy told RFA.
“If North Korea immediately accepts the international community’s support, it would be like North Korea is admitting that the quarantine policies promoted by Kim Jong Un have failed,” he said. “So North Korea is probably trying to solve [the COVID-19 situation] on its own as much as possible.”
Kim said that North Korea may be capable of resolving some of its problems with help from China, including the provision of the emergency medicines North Korea desperately needs.
Between January and March, North Korea imported U.S. $183,000 worth of facemasks and $3 million worth of mask making materials, such as nonwoven fabrics and thermoplastics, data released Wednesday by the General Administration of Customs of China said.
Additionally, North Korea imported $795,000 worth of medical supplies, which is already 27 times the total for all of 2021.
According to data based on reports from North Korean state media published by 38 North, a site that provides analysis on the country, slightly less than 2 million people have been hit by outbreaks of fever, 63 of whom have died.
The country has only a handful of confirmed COVID-19 cases, which 38 North attributed to insufficient testing capabilities. Data published on the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center showed North Korea with only one confirmed COVID-19 case and six deaths as of Thursday evening.
Translated by Claire Lee and Leejin J. Chung. Written in English by Eugene Whong.
V/R
David Maxwell
Senior Fellow
Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Phone: 202-573-8647
Twitter: @davidmaxwell161
FDD is a Washington-based nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy.
