It's only been a month since North Korea acknowledged having an COVID-19 outbreak, after steadfastly denying any cases for more than two years. But already it may be preparing to declare victory.
According to state media, North Korea has avoided the mass deaths many expected in a nation with one of the world's worst health care systems, little or no access to vaccines, and what outsiders see as a long record of ignoring the suffering of its people.
Outsiders suspect that Kim is using the outbreak to boost internal unity at a time when many of his people are tired of 2 1/2 years of draconian curbs that have hurt their livelihoods. North Korea is widely believed to be manipulating its true death toll to prevent any harm to Kim. It might also have exaggerated the number of earlier fever cases to boost vigilance against the virus and draw stronger public support for authorities' anti-virus controls. North Korea has recently reported about 17,000 to 30,000 new fever cases each day, for a total of 4.7 million. It says -- to widespread outside disbelief -- that only 73 have died.
"During an earlier phone conversation, one of my sources cried a little bit when she said she was worried that some bad things could happen in her family . But now she and others have become stable and sometimes laugh when we talk on the phone," Kang said. "I think North Korea will declare a victory over the pandemic a bit later. It would lose face if it proclaimed victory too soon and new patients cropped up afterwards," Nam said.
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