Kim Jong Un signal for help could mark a turning point in North Korea’s COVID fight

This, he told a meeting of the ruling party’s politburo, had created “a great crisis in ensuring the security of the state and safety of the people and entailed grave consequences”. He did not give details of what had happened, however. For some analysts, Kim’s outburst was tantamount to an admission that the virus had taken hold in North Korea, whose health infrastructure is ill-equipped to handle a public health crisis. “There is no possibility that North Korea will ever admit to an infection,” said Hong Min, a senior analyst at Seoul’s Korea Institute for National Unification. “Even if there have been mass transmissions, the North will definitely not reveal such developments and will continue to push forward its anti-virus campaign. “But it is also clear that something significant happened, and it was big enough to warrant a reprimanding of senior officials. This could mean mass infections or some sort of situation where a lot of people were put at direct risk of infections.”