North Korea - 2019-nCov (new coronavirus) - N. Korean tests positive for COVID-19 in China - zero officially confirmed cases - Emergency declared in K

[Treyfish]

North Korean lecturers say there are confirmed coronavirus cases in the country: RFA

APRIL 18, 2020 / 6:48 AM / UPDATED 6 HOURS AGO

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean authorities told citizens in public lectures that there were confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the country as early as the end of March, in contrast to official Pyongyang claims that it has not had any confirmed cases, Radio Free Asia reported on late Friday.

The lecturers, speaking to organisations and neighbourhood watch groups, said there were COVID-19 cases within the country, without giving any numbers, Radio Free Asia (RFA) said, citing two sources, one in Pyongyang and one in Ryanggang province.

The lecturers said the confirmed cases were in Pyongyang, South Hwanghae province and North Hamgyong province, RFA reported....:tiphat:https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-he...-idUKKBN2200H8

 

[Treyfish]

North Korean Lecturers Admit to COVID-19 Cases Despite Official Zero Toll - Reports


? AFP 2020 / KIM WON JIN
ASIA & PACIFIC
15:47 GMT 18.04.2020(updated 15:49 GMT 18.04.2020)

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - North Korean authorities have told citizens at public lectures that cases of COVID-19 infection have been detected in the country as early as March, Radio Free Asia reported citing anonymous sources.
.....
The US-funded publication reported that their sources attended public lectures on coronavirus education where officials said that the disease was spreading in the capital city Pyongyang and two other regions.

..
:tiphat:https://sputniknews.com/asia/2020041...oll---reports/

 

[Treyfish]

.... Hygienic information and medical observation for the inhabitants have been constantly strengthened in all parts of the country and those under medical observation have been freed according to the anti-epidemic rules.
In the DPRK, all foreigners were freed from quarantine and those who underwent 30 days of medical observation after being freed from quarantine are allowed to do normal activities.
All those under medical observation have been freed in South Phyongan and North Hwanghae Provinces and Rason City.:tiphat:http://vok.rep.kp/index.php?CHANNEL=6&lang=

 

[Treyfish]

N.K. paper urges high-level alertness, tight border control against pandemic

North Korea 08:58 April 17, 2020

SEOUL, April 17 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's official newspaper Friday called for high-level alertness and tight border control to ward off the new coronavirus as the communist state is bracing for a long fight against the global pandemic.

Last week, North Korea held a politburo meeting presided over by leader Kim Jong-un and adopted a resolution, calling for "strict national countermeasures to thoroughly check the infiltration of the virus" amid little prospect for the danger to disappear in a short time.

...
...

The paper called for "preemptive" and "immediate" measures against any possibility that the virus could enter the country, while maintaining a tight control on its land, sea and air borders in a precautionary step.

North Korea claims to have no coronavirus infection, but skepticism still persists that the North might be hushing up an outbreak given that its apparent lack of capability of identifying and treating such an infectious disease and its proximity to China and South Korea, where a large number of infections have been reported...:tiphat:https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN2020041...?section=nk/nk

 

[Treyfish]

N. Korea Releases All Under Quarantine in S. Pyongan, N. Hwanghae, Rason


Update: 2020-04-18 14:17:13

North Korea said it has released all those who were under quarantine over novel coronavirus concerns in South Pyongan and North Hwanghae Provinces as well as the city of Rason.

The state-run Korean Central Television said Saturday that lifting the quarantine continues according to regulations while hygiene campaigns and medical monitoring have strengthened.

....As North Korea maintains its claim that there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country, Korean Central News Agency said that there were two-thousand-280 people under quarantine as of March 27. :tiphat:http://world.kbs.co.kr/service/news_...eq_Code=152867

 

[Treyfish]

Strengthen sanitation propaganda and prevention measures in
Gangwon-do



Dear comrade Kim Jong- un, the oldest leader, said :
《The Party's preventive and medical policies must be thoroughly observed.》
Sanitation propaganda and quarantine projects in Gangwon-do to prevent new coronary virus infections continue to take place.
In the province, the quarantine project related to the new coronary virus infection is strengthening sanitary propagation power in the long-term condition and mobilizing propaganda propaganda means to conduct intensive propaganda. Propaganda propaganda including broadcast propaganda and mobile amplification equipment By means of means, we are constantly improving the effectiveness of hygiene propaganda by blending compilations, commentary data, and hygiene knowledge according to the characteristics of objects and places. In addition, mobile amplification equipment is installed at bus stops and trolley bus stops. Propaganda activities are being carried out in a frenetic manner.
Icheon-gun is responsible for the inspection and disinfection of all wheeled electrical materials entering or passing through the military. Quarantine workers measure the body temperature of the passengers in the parking lot with a lot of people's currents. It is... :tiphat:http://www.minzu.rep.kp/2020/04/gangwondo/

 

[Treyfish]

【Information】 There is a general election and it is forbidden to talk about the general election in Corona Moth !! 9,448 50

Unknown duku https://theqoo.net/1368666125
2020.04.11 04:09





ㅇㅇ




[Added temporary notice to Wang Cheng Crystal to original text]


https://theqoo.net/136861099

-Refer to the notice of general defense-


3. During the opening period of the general election, the corona 19 bulletin board is banned.




april 11 2020

general election ｏ 선 ｅｎ notice 12,460 11

Wang Cheng https://theqoo.net/1368610959
2020.04.11 01:11





1. It will be open for a limited time during the general election period, and if the bulletin board is closed within a few days after the general election, the post will be completely deleted.


2. Square is forbidden for political writing, and therefore, for general elections, it is forbidden.


3. During the opening period of the general election, the corona 19 bulletin board is banned.


4. Prohibition of relaying general elections in other bulletin boards
-Particularly, it is possible to block the relaying of the expression that certain political forces have eaten the general good, and have been flocked.


5. Even if it is a period-limited room, it is a bulletin board within Derku.


:tiphat:https://theqoo.net/election/1368610959

 

[Treyfish]

Inside N. Korea＞ “Dead In Their Homes”: Possibility of Coronavirus Outbreak in Chongjin City amid Mounting Number of Untested, “Misdiagnosed” Patients

2020.04.10

The Kim Jong-un regime, as of April 5, has continued to make claims of “zero coronavirus infections.” Meanwhile, there are rumors circulating within the country and headlines written in South Korean media of “infections and deaths in the North.”

Since news of the outbreak in Wuhan in January, ASIAPRESS has been collecting information from reporting partners in North Pyongan Province, North Hamgyong Province, Ryanggang Province, and Pyongyang.

Rumors of “infectious outbreaks” have been widespread, but no solid information could be found. This may have been a result of the regime’s prevention measures, however, it is more commonly believed to be due to a lack of testing kits and equipment, particularly in the regional cities.

In late March, a reporting partner living in North Hamgyong Province conducted an investigation in Rason and Chongjin, North Korea’s third largest city. The findings of the investigation raised doubts over the regime’s claims of “zero infections.”

The reporting partner explained, “In February, more and more people were said to be showing symptoms, such as coughing and a high fever. Particularly in the Pohang District and Sunam area of Chongjin City. Hospitals and clinics, however, would only diagnose these patients with tuberculosis, bronchitis, or a cold, and prescribe them fever reducers or cold medicines. No other measures were taken.”

According to a number of acquaintances living in apartments in downtown Chongjin, a number of people have died in their homes due to contagio..:tiphat:http://www.asiapress.org/rimjin-gang...ongjin-corona/

 

[Treyfish]

No One's Seen Kim Jong Un in a Week


N. Korean leader seemingly didn't appear at tribute to grandfather, triggering buzz about his health

By Jenn Gidman, Newser Staff Posted Apr 18, 2020 6:00 AM CDT

(NEWSER) – Kim Jong Un doesn't typically miss showing off whenever his famous relatives are honored during North Korean national holidays. That's why there are now whispers as to why he didn't show (or wasn't shown by state media) in a Wednesday birthday tribute to his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, with speculation now circulating the North Korean leader might be ill.

Only senior officials were said to have been part of the delegation that came for "the Day of the Sun" to view the embalmed body of Kim Il Sung at Pyongyang's Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, per Reuters. There was also no state media report about the country's alleged cruise missile tests on Tuesday, which there normally would be, with Kim in attendance. The last time the 36-year-old was seen in public was last Saturday, when he attended a Workers' Party politburo meeting...:tiphat:https://www.newser.com/story/289723/...t-no-show.html

 

[Treyfish]

Ruling Party Lecturers Admit COVID-19 is Spreading in North Korea, Contradicting Official Claims

2020-04-17

• Authorities in North Korea have been telling citizens in public lectures that there were confirmed coronavirus cases within the reclusive country’s borders as early as late March, contradicting Pyongyang’s claims that it remains free of the epidemic that has spread to all of its neighbors, RFA has learned.

Two sources within North Korea say the government held lectures at every organization and neighborhood watch unit in late March to educate people about the pandemic, where speakers publicly stated that COVID-19 was spreading in three specific areas of the country.

“[They] held a lecture session for all the residents titled ‘Let’s all work together on the coronavirus quarantine project to [successfully] implement the Supreme Leader’s policies,’” a resident in Ryanggang province, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal, told RFA’s Korean Service Thursday.

“The speaker at the lecture publicly stated that there were confirmed coronavirus patients among [the people],” the source added.

“They said that the [Korean Workers’] Party’s quarantine guidelines had not been implemented properly by us, and that this caused serious damage to the people’s economy,” the source said.

“The speaker appealed to us all to prevent [further] damage [to society] so we can together win the war against the coronavirus,” said the source.

North Korea’s dilapidated, underfunded health-care system – where some hospitals lack reliable running water and electricity – leaves the population particularly vulnerable to a pandemic.

The announcement that there were North Koreans who had contracted the virus did not sit well with residents in attendance, according to the source.

“They were wondering how it could be possible when the authorities had been claiming that there were no victims in North Korea thanks to the party’s thorough emergency quarantine measures,” the source said.

The source said authorities had been touting these policies and contrasting North Korea’s situation with that of South Korea and the rest of the world, where large numbers were falling ill and dying....:tiphat:https://www.rfa.org/english/news/kor...020192920.html

 

[Treyfish]

Is North Korea really coronavirus-free? Defectors, experts question zero Covid-19 claim

Associated Press
Published: 3:00pm, 20 Apr, 2020

Experts say the country’s reluctance to admit major outbreaks of disease means that Kim is likely handling the current pandemic in the same manner

• Defectors said that workers didn’t have test kits when they dealt with past outbreaks and weren’t even asked to confirm cases to the central government

Outsiders strongly suspect that
coronavirus
, which has sickened more than 2.3 million people worldwide, has already spread to North Korea because it shares a long, porous border with China, its most important trading partner and biggest aid benefactor. China is where the first known coronavirus cases were reported in December.

North Korea, which has quarantined tens of thousands and delayed the school year as precautionary steps, officially sealed its border with China in January, but smuggling across the frontier still likely happens. Activist groups in Seoul said they’ve been told by contacts in North Korea that people had died of the virus. Those claims cannot be independently verified.

While there have been no reliable outside reports of mass infections in North Korea yet, the country’s tight control on information allows few foreign experts to assert with an authority that the North’s quarantine regime has been successful. As seen in
Singapore
, the coronavirus can surge again, and North Korea’s powerful Politburo said last week it would further bolster anti-epidemic steps.North Korean authorities say country ‘has confirmed coronavirus cases’


“I think a considerable number of people could die. But that won’t be disclosed to the outside world because the North is not even able to diagnose patients with (the coronavirus),” said Kim Sin-gon, a professor at Korea University College of Medicine in Seoul. He said North Korea is struggling to treat seriously ill patients, and noted UN reports that about 40 per cent of its 24 million people are undernourished.

Russia’s
foreign ministry said in February it donated 1,500 coronavirus test kits to North Korea, and observers say similar kits have also been shipped there from China. Some relief agencies, including Unicef and Medecins Sans Frontieres, said they sent gloves, masks, goggles and hand hygiene products to North Korea.

North Korea’s main newspaper recently called its public health system “the most superior in the world” and said that Kim’s devotion to improving it is the reason why there are no infections.

North Korea’s socialist free medical service collapsed in the mid-1990s amid economic chaos and a famine that killed an estimated hundreds of thousands. In recent years, Kim has built new hospitals and modernised some medical facilities as the economy improved, but most of the m...:tiphat:https://www.scmp.com/print/news/asia...perts-question

 

[Treyfish]

N. Korea reopens some schools, universities amid coronavirus outbreak

By Yonhap
Published : Apr 20, 2020 - 21:11 Updated : Apr 20, 2020 - 21:30

Some university and high school students in North Korea are back at school after extended semester breaks that came due to the coronavirus outbreak, a propaganda outlet said Monday.

As the school vacations ended, classes reopened gradually, with students in their final years of university or high school first being allowed to attend lectures, according to an article carried by Naenara, a state media outlet.

The online outlet ran photos of students wearing masks and getting their temperatures checked before going into class. Other photos showed students seated in a classroom wearing face masks.

The article, however, did not mention when the schools resumed.

Schools in North Korea start their new year on April 1....:tiphat:http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200420000926

 

[Treyfish]

North Korea's Kim getting treatment after cardiovascular procedure - report
APRIL 20, 2020 / 8:23 PM

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is receiving treatment after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure early this month, a South Korean media report said, amid speculation over Kim’s health following his absence from a key anniversary event.

North Korea marked the anniversary of the birthday of its founding father and Kim’s grandfather, Kim Il Sung, as a national holiday on April 15, but Kim was not seen in attendance.

Daily NK, a speciality website run mostly by North Korean defectors, cited unidentified sources inside the isolated state saying Kim is recovering at a villa in the Mount Kumgang resort county of Hyangsan on the east coast after getting the procedure on April 12 at a hospital there....:tiphat:https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-no...23017?rpc=401&

 

[Treyfish]

NK paper urges high-level alertness to prevent virus-caused devastation

By Yonhap
Published : Apr 21, 2020 - 09:45 Updated : Apr 21, 2020 - 09:45

North Korea's official newspaper Tuesday urged its people to stay on high alert against the coronavirus, warning that the devastation caused by the pandemic in other countries could take place anytime in the communist nation.

North Korea claims to be free from the coronavirus, but Pyongyang has ramped up calls for its people not to let their guard down in warding off the COVID-19 pandemic as it is bracing for a long fight against the infectious disease that has been sweeping around the world.

"It is impossible to see the danger of virus infection disappear in a short period of time at a time when no preventive and treatment medication has been developed," the Rodong Sinmun, the organ of the North's ruling party, said....:tiphat:http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200421000167

 

[sharon sanders]

Media report...who knows? Might be true or not...beware this could be completely untrue.....


US source: North Korean leader in grave danger after surgery



By Jim Sciutto and Joshua Berlinger, CNN



Updated 10:46 PM ET, Mon April 20, 2020


https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/20/polit...rea/index.html

 

[Pathfinder]

(3rd LD) No unusual signs about N.K. leader's health: government sources

North Korea 16:53 April 21, 2020
(ATTN: ADDS more info throughout)
By Koh Byung-joon

SEOUL, April 21 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has seen no unusual signs suggesting North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is ill, government officials said Tuesday, after CNN reported that Kim is "in grave danger after a surgery."

"There is nothing unusual going on in North Korea. It's not true," a government official told Yonhap News Agency on condition of anonymity, referring to the CNN report that cited an unidentified "U.S. official with direct knowledge" of the matter.
...
https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20200421003653325?section=nk/nk

 

[Treyfish]

:magnify:

[CORRECTION] Source: Kim Jong Un recently received heart surgery


Daily NK source speculated that Kim's heart surgery was due to a number of factors, including obesity, prolific smoking habits, and "overwork"

By
Ha Yoon Ah
-
2020.04.21 12:35pm
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly referred to multiple sources for this story; this article is based on a single Daily NK source in North Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently underwent heart surgery and continues to recuperate from the procedure at a villa outside of Pyongyang, Daily NK has learned.

Reports from a Daily NK source in the country suggest that Kim underwent the surgery at the Hyangsan Hospital on Apr. 12. The hospital is located near Mount Myohyang, in North Pyongan Province, and is exclusively for the use of the Kim family.

Kim is reportedly under the care of doctors at the Hyang San Villa, which is near the hospital.

A doctor from the Kim Man Yoo Hospital in Pyongyang reportedly managed Kim’s heart operation along with other doctors with the Korean Red Cross General Hospital and the Pyongyang Medical University who typically handle medical issues concerning the North Korean leader.

Most of the doctors reportedly returned to Pyongyang after Kim’s condition was considered stable following the surgery. Only some of the doctors have remained near Kim to monitor his health, the Daily NK source said.

Around 30 members of Kim’s personal guard along with other guard units are reportedly watching over Hyang San Villa. Guards who were at the villa before Kim arrived have reportedly been stationed elsewhere for the time being.

Questions about Kim’s health were raised by observers of the country when the North Korean leader failed to take part in a ceremony honoring his grandfather, Kim Il Sung, at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun on Apr. 15.

North Korean state media, including the Korean Centr..:tiphat:https://www.dailynk.com/english/sour...heart-surgery/

 

[Treyfish]

APRIL 21, 2020 / 8:44 AM / UPDATED 5 HOURS AGOU.S. doesn't know what condition North Korea's Kim is in -National Security Adviser


1 MIN READ
WASHINGTON, April 21 (Reuters) - The United States does not know what condition North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is in and will have to see how events unfold, a top White House adviser said on Tuesday, following reports that Kim was ill and had undergone a cardiovascular procedure.

Asked about how political succession wou..:tiphat:https://www.reuters.com/article/nort...-idUSW1N28M00Q

 

[Treyfish]

"North Korea Prepares to Act as Chief Leader Kim Yeo-jung in an Emergency" <Yomiuri>

2020-04-22 09:12

Change font size share comment
"At the end of last year, the central government decided to focus on the journey when Kim Jong-un died."

"Kim Jung-eun, deteriorating hypertension, etc. French doctors' visit to North Korea in January"



North Korea's Kim Yeo-jung, a candidate for political affairs ...Accelerating two-factor consolidation (CG)[Provided by Yonhap News TV]

(Tokyo = Yonhap News) Correspondent Kim Ho-jun = From the end of last year in North Korea, Kim Young-eun, the younger sister of the chairman of the State Council Chairman Kim Yeo-jung, is preparing to act as the chief leader in an emergency. Reported.
According to reports, when the General Assembly of the Central Committee of the Labor Party was held at the end of last year in Pyongyang, an internal decision was made that if Chairman Kim was unable to rule due to death, etc.
"Since then, a lot of directives have been issued to the party and the military in the name of Kim Yeo-jung," he said.
It is known that Kim Yeo-jung belonged to the propaganda department of the party in charge of propagating the system, but it was also reported that at the end of last year, she was inaugurated as the 1st vice president of the organizational leadership, the core department that took over the personnel right after the party's General Assembly....:tiphat:https://m.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20200422...news06_related

 

[Treyfish]

Chinese medical reserve team on standby if Kim has medical problems after surgery :tiphat:https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/junshiwaijiao/ql1-04212020055012.html