How Kim Jong Un left North Koreans to die of COVID: Citizens left to 'fend for themselves', imprisoned for years if they defied lockdown rules and sent to labour camps for not wearing masks
More than two years after the world was blighted by the outbreak of Covid-19, North Korea finally declared it had recorded its very first case of the virus.
In reality, North Koreans had been suffering the effects of Covid since 2020 like everyone else, often without access to basic medicine and food, according to a new report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
They were also reportedly punished for reporting Covid symptoms, sent to labour camps for not wearing masks or breaking quarantine and in some cases sentenced to years in prison for violating lockdown rules.
The announcement of the first Covid case on May 12, 2022, followed by the acknowledgement of the Hermit Kingdom's first coronavirus-related death a day later, saw Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un declare a national emergency.
North Korea had already spent some 25 months in lockdown, having sealed its borders in January 2020 - cutting all humanitarian aid - amid concerning reports of the virus from China.
The 'maximum emergency epidemic prevention system' plunged Kim's people into an even stricter lockdown regime and was not lifted until the following summer.
As the restrictions were relaxed, CSIS, a Washington-based think tank, collected testimonies of 100 North Koreans reached via discreet micro surveys conducted by covert interviewers on the ground.
Its report, conducted in partnership with the George W. Bush Institute, found Kim's regime effectively left the population to fend for themselves in the face of mass infection and rising death tolls and brutally cracked down on cries for help.
Despite Pyongyang's official claim of 'zero cases' until May 2022, 92 out of the 100 North Koreans surveyed said they or someone they knew had been infected before that date - many as early as 2020.
Entire military battalions, civilian factories and schools were reportedly overwhelmed with sick people.
A woman working in the student/education sector highlighted that conditions were particularly bad in winter 2020 'with a lot of cases across the country'.
Within nursing homes, she said, 'there were so many deaths that there weren't enough coffins, so I thought it was serious'.
One respondent recounted how half the soldiers in a military communications battalion fell ill during a November 2021 outbreak. Another said students were collapsing in classrooms. 'Fevers were happening everywhere and many people were dying within a few days,' they said.
In the absence of any testing regime, diagnosis came down to guesswork.
'They said it was Covid if you have a fever and cough,' one person told survey collectors. At the hospital, if a person had a fever and cold symptoms, it was suspected to be coronavirus,' said another.
One soldier described how doctors were instructed not to prescribe medicine even when symptoms were obvious.
And 20 of the 100 respondents said they were aware of damage, and even death, caused by medicines that were either folk remedies, fake, or not taken properly.
One respondent noted: 'There were a lot of fake medicines, and people died because they couldn't use real medicine.' Another said, 'There are a few people who died because they should have taken medicine that suits their illness, but if they hear a medicine is good, they start taking it without looking into what it really is.'
With most of the weakened population struggling to access enough food, let alone adequate medicine or vaccines, honesty became just as dangerous as the virus itself.
Official government policy before May 2022 stated that the country had 'zero' cases. Respondents indicated that local reports of outbreaks were therefore met with censure and punishments.
'The clinic doctor told me I have Covid,' one respondent said, 'but said if I admit it, I'll be taken away.'
The report also laid out in chilling detail the array of punishments meted out for even the most minor breaches of lockdown rules, based on the interviews with respondents.
Citizens caught breaking curfew were sentenced to 10–15 days in forced labour camps, while holding a gathering, like a birthday party, could earn two weeks behind barbed wire.
The smallest breaches, such as failing to wear a mask would result in two days of hard labour - even as respondents said most people simply couldn't lay their hands on a mask.
Others fared far worse. Attempting to smuggle food across the border during lockdown was punishable by six months in a forced labour camp.
A harsher penalty was handed to those charged under the regime's sweeping Emergency Quarantine Act - a deliberately vague and catch-all statute. The punishment was reportedly three years' imprisonment 'as an example to others'.
One of the most disturbing entries in the report details the case of a quarantine official who failed to properly disinfect the isolation ward under their supervision.
They were immediately dismissed under wartime law and had their family detained.
However, the largest category of frustrations expressed by the respondents focused on the general ineffectiveness of Pyongyang's refusal to accept vaccines or other forms of aid from other countries, the report found.
One respondent said: 'Only my country has closed borders and doesn't allow travel between regions, and I heard that other countries offered vaccines, but we refused. They don't care whether the people live or die because they have good quality medicine and got jabs.'
Another noted: 'The UN said they were going to give our country medicine and rice, but the Supreme Leader stopped them.'
The CSIS report laid out in chilling detail the array of punishments meted out for even the most minor breaches of lockdown rules, based on the interviews with respondents
When vaccines finally did arrive, respondents to the survey claimed that only a select few were able to access them.
'In my country, only the central party cadres are considered people, and the real people are treated worse than pigs,' one person said.
'It was rumoured that everyone would be jabbed when the vaccine came in from China, but only the top officials got it,' another said, while a third respondent added: 'Central Committee cadres were jabbed with (vaccines) made in the US. The people are treated like animals.'
The CSIS report did not hold back in its assessment of Pyongyang's approach to the pandemic.
'We believe that if the government had spoken truthfully about the pandemic and accepted outside help from 2020, many deaths could have been avoided. Survey respondents all noted increased access to COVID-19 testing and vaccines after May 2022 when Pyongyang admitted to cases of COVID-19 and reportedly accepted some assistance from China.
'Prior to the regime's long-delayed announcement of an outbreak in May 2022, citizens reported having virtually no access to vaccines, no antiviral medications, and minimal supply of personal protective equipment.
Moreover, lockdowns of markets and restrictions on internal movements exacerbated food and medicine shortages. It's likely the national government dealt with the pandemic crisis by shirking responsibility and compelling the populace to fend for themselves.
'The government's negligence was nothing short of abominable,' it concluded.
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Plenti disinformation don comot online since wen Israel start to dey strike Iran last week, dis na as BBC Verify don review plenti posts for social media wey dem use to boost how effective di Tehran response dey. Di analysis find out some videos wey dem use artificial intelligence to make, wey bin dey brag about Iran military capacity togeda wit fake clips wey show wetin strikes cause for Israeli targets. Di three most viewed fake videos wey BBC Verify find don get ova 100 million views from all di platforms wey dem follow post dem. Pro-Israeli accounts sef don also share dia own disinformation online. Dis na mainly by say dem repost old clips of protests and gatherings for Iran wey dem go lie say dem dey show say di public for Iran no dey feel dia goment and dey support di Israel military campaign. Israel bin launch strikes for Iran for 13 June wey cause Iran to send several rounds of missile and drone attacks to Israel. One joinbodi wey dia work na to torchlight and analyse open source images tok say di amount of disinformation wey dey online dey, "astonishing" and even accuse who dem call "engagement farmers" say dem dey try to make money from di kasala by sharing misleading content wey dey made to get attention online. Geoconfirmed, wey be di online verification group write for X say, "we dey see everting from unrelated videos from Pakistan, to recycled videos from di October 2024 strikes, wey don gada ova 20 million views, to game videos and AI generated content wey dem dey try pass off say na wetin happun be dat". Some accounts don turn "super spreaders" of disinformation as dem dey get growth for dia followers. One pro Iranian account wey no look like e get any ties wit Tehran don grow dia followers from ova 700,000 for 13 June to 1.4 million for 19 June. Dis na 100% growth and, e neva even reach one week sef. Na one of di many not known accounts wey don dey show for pipo feeds as of recent. All of dem get blue ticks, get ogbonge messaging and don dey post disinformation well-well. Bicos some dey use names wey look like say dem dey official, so pipo go reason say dem bi real accounts but e no dey clear who dey run di accounts. Dis amount of disinformation dey marked as "di first time wey we go see di use of generative AI for dis level during kasala", na wetin Emmanuella Saliba wey be di Chief Investigative Officer for di analyst group Get Real tell BBC Verify. Accounts wey BBC Verify review bin dey normally show AI generated pictures as e be like say dem wan exaggerate how di Iran response to Israel strikes dey successful. One image wey get 27m views show dozens of missiles as dem dey enta di city of Tel Aviv. Anoda video look like e show missile strike on top one building for di Israeli city late for night. Ms Saliba say dis clips dey normally show night time attacks wey dey make am harder to verify. Di AI fakes dey also focus on claims say dem destroy di Israeli F-35 fighter jets, wey be di state of di art planes US make wey fit strike both targets for ground and for air. If di plenti clips wey dey comot dey real, dat mean say Iran for don destroy 15% of di Israel fleet of fighters. Dis na wetin Lisa Kaplan wey be di CEO of di Alethea analyst group tell BBC Verify. We neva fit verify any video of F-35s wey dem shoot down. One of di post wey don go far claim to show jet wey dey damaged afta dem shoot am down for Iranian desert. But signs of AI manipulation bin dey inside, like how di pipo wey dey around di jets bin dey di same size as di nearby motor and how di sand no even move small to show say jet crash land on am. Anoda video wey get 21.1 million views for TikTok show one Israeli F-35 wey air defences bin shoot down, but wia di video bin actually come from na from one flight simulator video game. TikTok don comot di video afta BBC Verify meet wit dem. 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One of dat kain video show plenti trucks wey dey carry ballistic missiles dey comot from one mountainside complex. Di signs of AI content show as di rocks for di video bin dey move dia self na wetin Ms Saliba tok. But Grok still tell X users say di videos bin dey real and also cite reports wey media outlets like Newsweek and Reuters put out say make pipo "check trusted news for clarity". X no ansa BBC Verify wen dem ask for comments for wetin Grok dey do. Many videos also comot for TikTok and Instagram, For statement to BBC Verify, TikTok tok say dem dey ginger to enforce community guidelines "wey prohibit inaccurate, misleading or fake content" and dem dey work wit independent fact checkers to "verify misleading content". Instagram owner Meta no ansa dia own request for comment. While motivation for pipo wey dey create dis online fakes dey plenti, many of dem dey shared by ordinary social media users. Matthew Facciani, wey be researcher for di University of Notre Dame, bin suggest say disinformation fit spread sharparly online wen pipo dey faced wit two options like di kain wey kasala and politics dey bring comot. E say, "dat one torchlight wetin be di bigger social and psychological issue of pipo wey wan reshare tins if e go wit dia political identity and also in general, more sensationalist emotional content wey dey spread quicker for di online world".
