Daily NK recently acquired a copy of an internal directive by the Central Committee of North Korea’s ruling party calling for a drive to stockpile goods in preparation for protracted quarantine efforts to end “by late October.”
According to a Daily NK source in North Korea on Wednesday, the directive was issued to provincial party committees as well as to security organs such as the Ministry of State Security and Ministry of Social Security back in July.
Firstly, through the order, the authorities stressed the crafting of state measures to build the economy and guarantee stable public livelihoods in preparation for protracted emergency quarantine efforts. They also called on economic managers to closely pursue and manage economic organizational efforts tailored to current emergency quarantine protocols.
The order also called on “provincial, city and county emergency quarantine divisions and regiments” to complete “by the end of October” efforts to stockpile quarantine and medical supplies “to deal with the outbreak of a national crisis.” The Ministry of Public Health was ordered to “responsibly” carry out efforts to replace medical supplies for stockpiling.
This apparently underscored the authorities’ demand that officials create a medical system reliant on domestic efforts, not foreign assistance, to keep the border closure going.
Also worth noting is the date the order was issued. The order came just after several cadres suffered severe reprimands after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un mentioned a “grave incident” related to quarantine efforts during an enlarged meeting of the politburo in late June.
There is speculation that Kim, having at the time received reports of high-ranking cadres violating quarantine rules to supply military stores of rice to the people, may have been trying to restore discipline by giving those cadres excessive tasks to undertake.
However, though all government organizations — including party, administrative, security, public safety and military (including special units) organs — launched efforts to secure supplies, those efforts reportedly bore little fruit.
On a related note, Edwin Salvador, the World Health Organization’s representative to North Korea, told AP on Oct. 7 (local time) that North Korean authorities had approved the transportation of supplies from the WHO and other UN agencies that had been stuck in the Chinese port of Dalian. Some of the supplies, including emergency health kits and medicine, had arrived in the North Korean port of Nampo and were undergoing quarantine procedures.
North Korea, it seems, unavoidably decided to accept foreign assistance in the face of difficulties securing supplies.
However, provincial areas reportedly still suffer from serious shortages of medical supplies. Efforts to stockpile and distribute medical supplies likely focused on the capital, Pyongyang.
In fact, in the case of public hospitals in Yanggang Province, a lack of medical supplies is preventing doctors from diagnosing or treating patients, despite the many people who turn up with symptoms of disease or fever.
For example, a man in his 40s identified by his family name of Ri visited the People’s Hospital in Hyesan last month to receive treatment for inflammation. However, he was simply told to get a shot of penicillin; he was unable to receive treatment at the hospital. Finding medicine in the market also proved difficult, and his ailment reportedly worsened.
“With the sky, land and sea under lockdown since last year, I have no idea how we’re going to stockpile quarantine and medical supplies,” said the source. “When even treating patients is difficult due to a lack of medical supplies, telling us to secure supplies in preparation for protracted emergency quarantine efforts is, in fact, an impossible order divorced from reality.”
Meanwhile, the order also called on provincial, city and county officials to take good care of isolation centers and properly supply them with food. Calling for the establishment and improvement of specialized isolation facilities for suspected COVID-19 patients, the measure also appears to be in preparation for protracted emergency quarantine efforts.
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