It's now dangerous to cough, have a fever or shortness of breath in North Korea lest the person showing any of these signs be suspected of having COVID-19 and be shot to prevent the virus from spreading.
At least that's what it looks like now in the hermit state as North Korean authorities have given the green light for a shoot-to-kill to keep the disease from getting into the country from China, a U.S. forces commander in the South disclosed, Tech Times reported.
North Korea – whose poor medical infrastructure is not capable of handling a large-scale health emergency – has not confirmed a single COVID infection that has ravaged the globe since it was first detected in Wuhan, China, the country's major ally.
North Korea's claim that it has remained COVID-free has many health experts doubting and debating such assertion, believing that the country may just be hiding the actual numbers of coronavirus cases. "It's impossible for the North not to have a single case of the virus," Jung H. Pak, a former Central Intelligence Agency analyst on North Korea, said.
In January this year, Pyongyang had ordered its borders shut with China and declared a nationwide emergency to contain the disease. Six months later, authorities increased the country's emergency alert to maximum, even as the state did not confirm a single infection.
According to U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) commanding officer Robert Abrams, the country's border lockout had increased demand for smuggled goods and prompted authorities to set up a buffer zone stretching two kilometers on China's border. North Korean Special Operations Forces have been deployed in the zone, strike forces with "shoot-to-kill orders in place," Abrams said.
Based on a report, Abrams may have disclosed to an online conference led by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington on Sept. 10, that Pyongyang is "shooting people" in order to prevent the disease from spreading.
The border closure, experts observed, had effectively increased the impact of economic sanctions implemented against North Korea over its nuclear ambitions, with imports from China falling 85 percent. And, on top of its ongoing coronavirus misery, the country is also grappling with the ill effects of Typhoon Maysak, which has damaged over 2,000 homes, its state-run news agency reported.
Abrams also bared North Korea may not be resorting to any provocations in the near future as it is preoccupied at the moment on containing the threat of the virus.
