North Korea enters 10th month of international lockdown

Since the last week of January this year North Korea has stopped almost all traffic and travel in and out of the country for both foreigners and Korean nationals to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

It still claims to have no cases of the virus, and so far has only gone public with one alarm about a possible case, a rare returnee from South Korea, according to state media.

A local company now has got a face mask production line up and running to attempt to meet local demand.

Although North Korea has a lot of well-trained doctors, for many years it has had a severe shortage of medicines and medical equipment.

Its weak health resources and infrastructure mean that COVID-19 has been considered a serious threat to the country since January.

Back in 2014, North Korea was alone among Asian countries to impose quarantine requirements in the face of the Ebola outbreak in Africa.

It also imposed quarantine during the 2003 Sars outbreak which started in China.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un faces his share of trouble: crippling U.S.-led economic sanctions, the coronavirus pandemic and damage from devastating typhoons and summer floods.

In August, in a highly unusual admission of policy failure, North Korea’s ruling Workers Party said the economy had “not improved in the face of the sustaining severe internal and external situations” and that development goals have been “seriously delayed.”