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North Korea first disclosed the Corona virus situation last Thursday, but there are also investigation results showing that Corona has been spreading in North Korea since the end of last year, and that there have been deaths.

It is also estimated that this pandemic may have started two months ago.



Correspondent Cho Dong-chan, a medical professional reporter, covered the story.



<Reporter>



This is North Korea's Corona 19 report prepared by a research team at Oxford University in the UK.



North Korea announced in December last year that it tested 49,941 people, all of which were negative.



However, as a UN expert investigated, it was determined that the corona had already spread to North Korea and that there were uncounted corona deaths.



At the time, I wrote that it was a situation that could be controlled by a lockdown, that is, a corona containment policy.



The American Institute for Strategic and International Studies analyzed that this lockdown reached its limit in March.



The long-term lockdown policy has exacerbated hunger, and the North Koreans no longer follow suit without treatment.



A domestic expert estimated that if now was the peak of the corona virus in North Korea, the full-scale transmission would have started in March, 50 days ago.



The quarantine authorities analyzed that only 10% of Omicron's patients had a fever, and that the actual number of North Korean patients would be much higher than those with fever.



The Central Clinical Committee for New Infectious Diseases estimated that 34,000 people could die from this epidemic.



[Oh Myeong-don/Chairman of the Central Clinical Trial Committee for Emerging Infectious Diseases: Considering the period of counting the number of deaths, the 34,540 people I suggested is a fairly low number.]



The analysis of the Institute for Strategic and International Studies is darker. The death toll from coronavirus is estimated at 160,000.



There are three reasons.



North Korea has no vaccine or treatment.



The malnutrition rate of North Koreans is 63.1%.

It is said that a significant number of North Koreans are at high risk for the corona virus, even with the exception of the elderly and chronic diseases.



The poor quality of medical care is also a problem.



In the 1990s, North Korea suffered its worst hunger, killing more than a million people, and the current food situation is said to be not as good as it was then.



(Video coverage: Park Dae-young, video editing: Kim Jun-hee, CG: Kang Yu-ra, Ryu Sang-soo, Jo Su-in)