<Anchor>



Starting from today (21st), this time every week, we deliver the 'Korean Peninsula Focus', a corner that analyzes news and current issues in North Korea for a week.



First, reporter Kim A-young summarized the situation in which freight trains between North Korea and China were put into service again.



<Reporter>



North Korea, which has closed its borders since the early days of COVID-19, is showing signs of change this year.



Not long after they announced that they would change the principle of quarantine, which was focused on control, some land routes between North Korea and China were opened.



Did you have the North Korean version of 'With Corona' in mind?



[Video source (Douin): The first car of Chosun (North Korea) comes in. 9:10 local time.] On



the 16th, a 20-car North Korean freight train arrived at Dandong Station, China, which is on the border between North Korea and China.



It was a video filmed by SBS at the time, and it was covered in a lot of disinfectant.



It's not that big of a freight train coming, it's because it's from North Korea.



North Korea has used an extreme containment policy to the point where people or animals can be shot when found at the border.



[North Korean trader (September 2020): It happened in April, and it happened in March. There is an instance where smugglers were found over there (North Korea) and shot and died.]



North Korea, which cut off trains and planes, sent the train directly and put it back in, so it must be said that the supreme leader's determination was there.



I gave a little hint a while ago.



At a plenary meeting at the end of last year, North Korea announced that it would move from a control-oriented quarantine to an advanced, people-oriented quarantine.



It has already been three years, and with the never-ending Corona 19, did North Korea see that it now needs to revise its strategy?



[Chosun Central TV: It is the prolonged emergency quarantine situation and the long-term trend of maximum awakening and strong discipline in the national emergency quarantine project.] The



decisive reason for opening the border must be the lack of supplies.



On the other hand, the judgment that the quarantine situation has stabilized to some extent also seems to have had an impact.



In fact, even in the early days of COVID-19, it was not possible to wear a mask properly.



Wearing a mask has become commonplace these days, and at indoor events, people cross one seat at a time to sit, which is a North Korean expression of 'epidemic distancing'.



However, outdoor crowd events are being held steadily, whether it is the confidence of the corona-free zone.



[Bang Kyung-hee / Vice-Chairman of Pyongyang City Women's League Committee: About 3,000 women in the city are raising the drum of economic agitation.

In carrying out the decision of the historic Party plenary...

.]



Now that the border gates are cracked, the next question is, to what level are you going to open them?



Once things have come and gone, it is an observation that it is not easy to go directly to people because of Corona 19 concerns.



The confirmation rate is 0%, the vaccination rate is 0%.



This is the only record that North Korea claims in a world ravaged by COVID-19.