Amid an intense surge of COVID-19 cases in China, most factories in China’s Liaoning and Jilin provinces that employ North Korean workers have shut down, Daily NK has learned.
Last Thursday, a source in China told Daily NK that the factories, which manufacture textiles and electronics, halted operations due to a rapid rise in suspected COVID-19 cases among North Korean workers that began in mid-December.
North Korean workers live in communal dormitories and are forbidden from going out, so they have few opportunities to interact with the outside world. However, factory managers and cadres frequently visit North Korean consular offices in China and may have introduced the coronavirus to factory workers.
In fact, 70-80% of the total occupants of each dormitory are complaining of symptoms including fever, sore throat, coughing, and muscle pain, the source told Daily NK.
Since China has scrapped PCR testing requirements, North Korean workers are not receiving tests even when they exhibit symptoms. Instead, they generally rely on self-diagnoses.
However, the rapid rise in COVID-19 cases throughout China has led to a shortage in medications like fever reducers and painkillers. Due to this severe shortage of medication, many North Korean workers are having to wait for symptoms to go away, which means they are recovering quite slowly.
SEVERAL TRADE WORKERS DIE IN LIAONING PROVINCE
At present, it appears that none of the North Korean factory laborers in China have died from COVID-19. Trade workers, however, live and work in far less isolated conditions, and deaths from COVID-19 continue to occur among this group.
“In December, six members of the North Korean trade mission in Liaoning Province died,” the source said. “They were older men, in their 50s and 60s, and had underlying conditions like diabetes and high blood pressure.”
The source said that they exhibited high fever and other severe COVID-19 symptoms such as difficulty breathing, but were unable to receive proper treatment at a hospital.
“Deaths from COVID-19 are increasing quickly in China, so crematoriums everywhere are booked solid through the end of January,” the source said, adding, “The trade representatives who passed away last month can’t even be cremated until February. COVID-19 cases are increasing very quickly, and North Koreans in China right now are helpless against infection.”
Translated by Nicholas Seltzer.
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