Daily NK recently acquired documents pertaining to COVID-19 cases during last year’s outbreak in North Korea and the measures taken to lock down certain regions.
On May 12, 2022, North Korea officially acknowledged for the first time that people had been infected with COVID-19 within its borders. The North Korean authorities then reported 168 confirmed cases at 6 PM on May 14, but subsequent statistics used the term “people with fever symptoms” without specifying the number of confirmed cases.
According to a daily report on the transmission of the virus prepared by North Korea’s State Emergency Anti-epidemic Command, which was recently acquired by Daily NK, there were at least 220 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Pyongyang alone during the outbreak of the disease in North Korea last year.
An analysis of another document acquired by Daily NK indicates that North Korea locked down at least 37 regions last year. Significantly, restrictions remained in place in several areas even after North Korea declared “victory” in its battle against COVID-19 in August, claiming that “the crisis involving this infectious disease has been completely resolved.”
ONLY 168 CASES OF COVID-19? AT LEAST 220 IN PYONGYANG ALONE
The Emergency Anti-epidemic Command’s daily report on viral transmission for July 2, 2022, which was among the documents acquired by Daily NK, contained “an analysis of clinical symptoms that appeared prior to fever in 220 people who had undergone the virus between April 25 and June 26.”
“Undergone” in this sentence is taken to mean that these individuals had recovered from a COVID-19 infection.
It can be inferred from this report that at least 220 confirmed cases of COVID-19 occurred in Pyongyang.
According to the same document, six cases of COVID-19 were confirmed in Rason on July 2.
“Among 2,690 individuals around the country who were administered PCR-based tests on July 2, four tested positive in the city of Rason. The Bioengineering Unit at the State Academy of Sciences carried out DNA sequencing on two individuals infected with the coronavirus at Base No. 24 and found that the individuals had been infected with the BA.2 Omicron variant of the virus,” the report said.
Base No. 24 refers to the facility in Uiju used for quarantining and disinfecting materials arriving from China.
AT LEAST 37 AREAS LOCKED DOWN LAST YEAR
According to another document acquired by Daily NK, at least 37 areas in North Korea were locked down in April of last year. The areas confirmed to have gone under lockdown include Pyonggang County, Kangwon Province; Rinsan County, North Hwanghae Province; Sakju County, North Pyongyan Province; Riwon County, South Hamgyong Province; Sunan District, Pyongyang; and Hyesan, Yanggang Province.
Those areas were locked down for various reasons, including contact with bats, illicit trade in seaweed, contact with pamphlets sent from South Korea and contact with Chinese individuals.
The document categorizes lockdown levels as being complete lockdown, lockdown, level-two lockdown and temporary restrictions. In comparison, North Korea’s Emergency Anti-epidemic Act states that areas can be locked down at special level, level one, level two or level three depending on the circumstances.
In light of that, “special level” would appear to correspond to “complete lockdown” and “level three” to “temporary restrictions.”
According to the documents, there was a lockdown of the Changsong Labor District in Sakju County, North Pyongang Province, in April 2022, three days after a fever was reported there. A level-two lockdown was implemented in Sinchon Village, Unpha County, North Hwanghae Province, in May after farm workers there came into contact with propaganda pamphlets from South Korea.
Then in June, the North Korean authorities ordered a complete lockdown of the Daeyang neighborhood in Pyongyang’s Sunan District after a positive PCR test of a balloon that was found there.
Chongdan County, South Hwanghae Province, was locked down in September, with Ungok Village being placed under a complete lockdown. But no reason was provided for those actions.
The lockdowns varied in length from a single day to 19 days, depending on the area. According to North Korea’s Anti-Epidemic Act, decisions about declaring and lifting lockdowns are to be made by the non-permanent State Emergency Anti-Epidemic Review Board. The board appears to have set the length of the lockdown according to the severity of the incident and testing results.
LOCAL LOCKDOWNS CONTINUED EVEN AFTER DECLARATION OF VICTORY
In a national pandemic meeting on Aug. 10, 2022, North Korea declared the complete resolution of the COVID-19 crisis and victory in its anti-epidemic campaign, and announced a transition from emergency footing to normal anti-epidemic status.
But according to a document acquired by Daily NK, the State Emergency Anti-epidemic Command ordered a lockdown of the city of Hyesan on Aug. 25, just two weeks later. That lockdown included a total closure of the neighborhoods of Songhu, Hyesan, Hyemyong, Hyesong, Tapsong, Ryonbong-1 and Ryonbong-2.
The same document detailed orders to strictly forbid anyone who had left Hyesan after Aug. 20 from entering Pyongyang.
Other areas the document said were locked down after August last year included Kusong, Taegwan County and Tongrim County in North Pyongan Province; Chongdan County in South Hwanghae Province; and Komdok District in South Hamgyong Province, while the Kaepung District of the city of Kaesong was locked down early this year.
Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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