Kim Won Jin\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When North Korea closed its borders in early 2020 \u2013 as the virus made its way across the globe, on its way to infecting and killing millions \u2013 state media claimed it had kept the virus out entirely; no infections, no deaths. The world was skeptical. But the regime\u2019s total control over borders and information made independent verification nearly impossible. <\/p>\n
Two years later, North Korean television aired scenes of a military parade in Pyongyang. Crowds filled Kim Il Sung Square. Masks were scarce. Not long after, reports of a mysterious \u201cfever outbreak\u201d began appearing in state media. By early May, Pyongyang confirmed its first Covid-19 case. Three months later, it declared victory \u2013 claiming just 74 deaths out of nearly 5 million \u201cfever\u201d cases. <\/p>\n
But according to the new survey, Covid-19 had by that point been circulating widely inside the country for at least two years. <\/p>\n
Ninety-two percent of respondents said they or someone close to them had been infected. Most said 2020 and 2021 \u2013 not 2022 \u2013 were when outbreaks were at their worst. <\/p>\n
\u201cFevers were happening everywhere, and many people were dying within a few days,\u201d one participant reported. Another, a soldier, described a military communications battalion in which more than half the unit \u2013 about 400 soldiers \u2013 fell ill by late 2021. In prisons, schools, and food factories, respondents described people collapsing or missing days of work due to fever. <\/p>\n
Even under normal conditions, the country\u2019s isolated and underfunded healthcare system struggles to meet the needs of its people. But a pandemic-level event, coupled with official denial and an initial refusal to accept foreign vaccines, left people dangerously exposed, the report claims. <\/p>\n
With virtually no access to testing, diagnoses came from Covid-19 symptoms that most of the world had grown familiar with: fever, cough, shortness of breath. Some respondents said even these symptoms were taboo. One woman recalled being told by a doctor that if she said she had those symptoms, \u201cyou will be taken away.\u201d Another said bluntly: \u201cThey told me it\u2019s a cold, but I knew it was COVID.\u201d <\/p>\n
In place of official care, citizens turned to folk medicine: saltwater rinses, garlic necklaces, even opium injections. One woman said her child died after being given the wrong dosage of adult medication. Another respondent described neighbors overdosing on counterfeit Chinese drugs. In total, one in five respondents reported seeing or hearing of deaths due to misuse of medication or fake pharmaceuticals. <\/p>\n
Protective gear was nearly nonexistent. Just 8% of respondents said they received masks from the government. Many made their own, reused them, or bought them at black-market prices. One mother said her children had to sew their own because adult-issued masks were too big. <\/p>\n
Cha says the failure was not just in what the government withheld, but in how it blocked the kind of grassroots survival that had helped North Korea\u2019s \u201cresourceful\u201d citizens endure past disasters \u2013 including the 1990s famine, known inside the country as the \u201cArduous March.\u201d That crisis gave rise to private marketplaces, which emerged as a lifeline when the state-run ration system collapsed. During the pandemic, however, those markets were shut down \u2013 officially to contain the virus, but also, Cha suggests, to limit the spread of information. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey didn\u2019t allow the people to find coping mechanisms,\u201d he said. \u201cJust shut them down, quarantine them, lock them down \u2013 and then provided them with nothing.\u201d <\/p>\n
The suffering extended beyond illness. With internal travel banned and markets shuttered, food shortages became acute. Eighty-one percent of those surveyed said they faced hunger. Respondents spoke of trying to survive quarantine periods with no rations, no access to medicine, and no way to seek help. <\/p>\n
The rationing system, long unreliable, collapsed entirely under the weight of the lockdown. \u201cIf you didn\u2019t have emergency food at home, it was really tough,\u201d one soldier said. <\/p>\n
Eighty-seven percent of respondents said they had no access to Covid tests at any point in the pandemic. Fewer than 20% received any vaccine \u2014 and most of those were administered only after Pyongyang acknowledged the outbreak in 2022 and accepted limited Chinese assistance. Soldiers reported receiving three shots as part of a campaign later that year. Civilian respondents described group vaccinations administered at schools or workplaces \u2013 months after the rest of the world had rolled out full vaccination programs. <\/p>\n
Even the basic act of reporting illness became a risk. According to the report, local clinics and neighborhood watch units were required to report cases to central authorities. But only 41% of respondents ever received any information about those reports. Most said the results were either never shared or filtered through rumor. One respondent said: \u201cI realized that serious illnesses and deaths were not reported because they were told not to call it COVID.\u201d <\/p>\n
This system of denial created what Cha calls a \u201cdouble lie\u201d: the government lied to its people, and the people lied to each other and to their government \u2013 each trying to avoid quarantine, censure, or worse. <\/p>\n
The survey also documented a deep well of frustration with the regime\u2019s response \u2013 and its propaganda. One participant said: \u201cOur country can build nuclear weapons, but they can\u2019t give us vaccines.\u201d Others noted the contrast between their conditions and what they heard about other countries: free testing, access to medicine, the ability to travel. <\/p>\n
In one of the report\u2019s most striking findings, 83% of respondents said their experience did not align with what the government or its leader Kim Jong Un told them. More than half said they explicitly disbelieved the regime\u2019s Covid-related announcements. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I saw the Supreme Leader touting his love for the people, while so many were dying without medicine,\u201d one respondent said, \u201cI thought of all the people who didn\u2019t survive.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n
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