A revision to North Korea’s emergency quarantine law passed by an executive meeting of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly on Nov. 15 aims to establish a “perfectly ordered command system” needed for disease control activities, Daily NK has learned.
A source in North Korea told Daily NK on Friday that the revision to the Law on Emergency Anti-epidemic Work aims to create an “immediate and simultaneously implemented national response system” to address outbreaks early.
“The goal is to create a response system that [can] handle disease-related emergencies as a national effort, beyond efforts limited to the quarantine, sanitation, public health and medical sectors,” he said.
This is to say, the revision aimed to give North Korea an agile, organic response system by reflecting in legislation the lessons learned from the country’s protracted emergency quarantine efforts.
In fact, the source said if the state declares the launch of the national emergency quarantine system, “the government goes on a wartime footing.”
He added that the gist of the revision is that “at the infectious disease crisis stage, [administrators] should regard quarantine activities orders as military orders and carry them out [accordingly].”
According to the Law on Emergency Anti-epidemic Work, if the state switches to a national emergency quarantine system amid a worsening domestic outbreak of an infectious disease, military, security and police agencies can completely restrict or shut down the movement of people and materials by land, sea and air.
The law also calls on ordinary government agencies to operate in an organized and systematic way during a national crisis, including a worsening outbreak of disease.
Provisions in the law pertaining to the production and distribution of supplies were also revised.
“The revision instructed all units, agencies and enterprises of the people’s economy to follow orders like the military,” said the source. “A key part of the revision is that [when the national emergency quarantine system is in place], they should go into a munitions mobilization system that will begin producing and guaranteeing all the supplies needed to respond to an outbreak.”
Based on the source’s report, Article 51 appears to have been partially amended.
Article 51 of the Law on Emergency Anti-epidemic Work calls on the Cabinet, state planning agencies, central public health guidance agencies, electricity providers, provincial people’s committees and related agencies to prioritize the distribution of medicines, medical devices and medical supplies for emergency quarantine efforts, as well as guaranteeing electricity, staple foods, side dishes, kindling, drinks, daily necessities and other supplies to regions under lockdown and quarantine spaces.
The Rodong Sinmun reported on Nov. 16 that an executive meeting of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly “deliberated on amendments to the Law on Welfare Service, the Law on Auditing, the Law on the Disposal of Wastes, the Law on the Prevention of Disaster by Earthquake and Volcano and the Rescue of Victims, and the Law on Emergency Anti-epidemic Work before adopting relevant decrees.”
In regards to the revision to the Law on Emergency Anti-epidemic Work, the paper reported that the law “deals with the additional important issues for rapidly and actively responding to an epidemic crisis and strengthening the material and technical foundation of the anti-epidemic and public health sectors.”
COVID-19 CASES SEEM TO BE ON THE RISE
Meanwhile, with winter arriving, everyone is suffering more, and more people are getting sick, Daily NK’s source said.
“Generally speaking, the number of COVID-19 cases seems to be on the rise,” he claimed.
The source explained that doctors cannot openly diagnose cases of COVID-19 because the government has already declared an end to the outbreak.
North Korea declared “victory” in its quarantine war against COVID-19 during a meeting to review national emergency quarantine efforts in August.
At the time, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “solemnly declared the victory in the maximum emergency anti-epidemic campaign,” noting that the Workers’ Party and government evaluated the quarantine situation at the time and concluded that the COVID-19 outbreak had “completely subsided” based on analysis submitted by scientific researchers.
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