When at the end of January this year, the DPRK authorities have suspended aviation and rail links with other countries in relation to measures of the Country of Juche in the world media enough snide comments. Oil poured into the fire, and additional steps, when the DPRK began to leave in quarantine even loads. On 13 February, the country is generally left in complete isolation, stopping the operation of all border crossings. All foreigners, which at that time remained in North Korea, was ordered to remain at the place of residence without the right to leave their house or grounds of the embassies. Representatives of several Western missions were not particularly pleased with the quarantine, but because many of them prefer to fly only a flight specifically for this implemented Koreans March 9, exported a few dozen people in Vladivostok.
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Those who remained in North Korea, acknowledged that the measures were very strict and resembled something of a house arrest: no the city, no meetings with representatives of North Korea. Allowed was just a problem with garbage along the route “Embassy – ground garbage – the Embassy”, without any deviations. Since the beginning of March the North Korean authorities began to relax the measures, allowing to reach the city and visit some of the objects, a list of which made the North Koreans.
However by the time of the Country of Juche has ceased to laugh, as the coronavirus was already raging in China, South Korea, and began to spread to Europe and other countries. The DPRK authorities also kept saying the same thing: “infections COVID-19 not registered in the country”, but many Western experts did not believe, claiming that the DPRK almost never doesdischarges in the presence of some problems, and some media, citing anonymous sources began to report hundreds of deaths from the coronavirus. However, information on deaths in the DPRK have not found other evidence.
the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang reported that it received a note to the Protocol Department of the foreign Ministry of the DPRK, which was addressed to all accredited in Pyongyang embassies and offices of international organizations. It in fact it was reported that all the restrictive measures in respect of aliens filmed and they “re allowed to visit all the capital’s shops, restaurants, consumer services and the Central market on the street Donil”. Informed media of the DPRK stated that on April 10, the North Korean authorities intend to collect at the meeting of your Parliament, the Supreme people’s Assembly, which will be presented to the deputies from all regions of the country.
So now we can accurately say that the reaction of the DPRK to the coronavirus has been successful. Indeed, sometimes it can be the representatives of the Country of Juche and the media did not rush to report their problems, but whether they have an epidemic COVID-19, it would be difficult to hide. Anyway, the information would have leaked out and confirmed. In addition, is unlikely to be in the context of the epidemic, North Korean authorities allowed foreigners to return to the regime that existed in the “dacoromania” times. Themselves as citizens of the Country of Juche, judging by the videos and photos that provide including foreigners are also free to walk around Pyongyang. Perhaps, you fully agree with the fact that his page on Facebook wrote the Embassy of the Russian Federation, commenting on the situation with COVID-19 in the DPRK: “We are encouraged by the information about another easing of restrictive measures in force here for two months. We regard it as a testimony to the effectiveness of the leadership of the DPRK measures to prevent the entry of coronavirus of a new type”.
Zapadnie the media and the experts admit it. “Looking back, we can say that the initial reaction of the authorities of the DPRK was justified,” wrote the English-language portal NK News, which specializiruetsya on the news about North Korea.
About South Korea information has always been far more the truth and the story of the struggle of southerners with COVID-19 was much more dramatic, but if you compare with what is happening in the US and Europe, from here Korea (but now the South) was the example to follow.
Power of the South but was waiting for the arrival of the virus from China, but despite the measures taken, COVID-19 could penetrate the country, though not without the help of the followers of the sect of “Senhaji”, which was misled by the local physicians. In the end from late February to mid-March, the situation looked rather alarming: the number of infected grew rapidly in the main hearth in the South-East, and coronavirus slowly made their way to other regions of Korea.
However, now the South Koreans could breathe quieter. The number recovered has exceeded 60 percent, the number of those who win the infection and discharged from quarantine consistently exceeds the number of new cases and the death rate remains at less than two percent. The country was not imposed a mass quarantine, continue to operate cafes, restaurants, a public institution, and the people psychologically relaxed and began to organize a mass picnic. This, incidentally, concerned about the local authorities, who constantly warns that “the virus is retreating, but not defeated,” and the premature euphoria can result in repeated mass outbreaks of coronavirus.
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one way or another, but in any case it is possible to admit that South Korea now although not yet fully freed from COVID-19, but at least managed to reverse the situation and did it pretty quickly. The factors that helped the South to achieve a breakthrough, we have described in detail earlier, here only say that really helped the experience in the fight against MERS coronavirus in 2015, the operating system tracking contacts of all infected and their exclusion, as well as understanding that all the measures introduced must be respected, otherwise it may be worse later.
If we compare how the situation develops with COVID-19 on the South and North Korea, it is obvious that countries have gone several different ways, although they were similar in that either in advance of Korea (DPRK) or fast enough (Republic of Korea) reacted to the infection, deciding that it is better to limit yourself in something and to mobilize maximum resources now than to face a full-blown crisis later. In the end it turned out that now we are studying the experience of the two Koreas, which have proved their effectiveness.
