Siberian cold wave in Pyongyang with temperatures dropping to -25°C. “North Korean authorities have declared a total lockdown of the capital Pyongyang for five days, from Wednesday January 25 to Sunday January 29, due to the increase in cases of a respiratory disease”indicates an extract from this official North Korean document which the agency specialized in North Korea NK News, based in Seoul, had knowledge of.
This decision comes as the inhabitants of Pyongyang, having heard of the announcement of confinement, had already started, the day before, to store food.
Banned from going out for five days
Concretely, the inhabitants of Pyongyang have been ordered to stay at home and must submit to multiple temperature readings every day. The text of the ad does not mention Covid-19 but says that the common cold is among the new diseases currently spreading in the capital.
This is not the first time that such confinement has been imposed by the authorities. In May 2022, the whole country had been locked down for almost two weeks before the authorities announced the « victoire » against Covid-19 in August 2022. An assertion that many experts interviewed by NK News largely doubted.
A fragile health system
Meanwhile North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has mobilized thousands of soldiers and civilians to train in the cold ahead of a big parade in the heart of Pyongyang on February 8. . It is not known if this confinement will have the slightest impact on these festivities. One thing is certain, North Korea has one of the worst health systems in the world, according to experts, with poorly equipped hospitals, few intensive care units and no treatment for Covid-19.
According to specialized sources, Pyongyang has not vaccinated its approximately 25 million inhabitants. Other information indicates that the country would have received vaccines from China, however. A key trading partner and neighbor of North Korea, the city of Beijing is itself facing a wave of infections after it ended its drastic “zero Covid” policy.
North Korea has strictly closed its borders since the start of the pandemic in January 2020, but has authorized certain trade with China for several months. The World Health Organization (WHO) has long cast doubt on Pyongyang’s Covid statistics and the country’s claims that the outbreak is under control.