After North Korea revealed its first coronavirus case in May of this year, many feared the worst for the isolated country’s unvaccinated and undernourished population.
In the more than two years since the outbreak of the pandemic, the country’s dictatorship has maintained that not a single person has tested positive for Covid-19 within its borders, a statement made by experts. Foreign public health experts treat it with skepticism.
But less than 10 days after suddenly admitting there were a series of outbreaks across the country in May, an editorial in the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper claimed that North Korea had “successfully overcame” the crisis. crisis, protesting leader Kim Jong Un’s response and encouraging other countries’ “weak” lockdown policy.
Since then, North Korean authorities have claimed that there have only been 74 deaths due to 4.8 million cases in the country, or a mortality rate of about 0.0015%, compared with 0.7% in the country. UK, 0.3% in US and 0.1% in Korea over the same period.
On Saturday, North Korea reported no new fever cases for the first time since the country first announced the outbreak. State media hailed the “organizational strength and unity unique to society of .” [North Korea]. ”
The twist and turn of North Korea propaganda in recent months has tampered with the reality of the pandemic in the country. But they also serve to illustrate the regime’s complex and shifting relationship with reality itself.
“It’s important for the North Korean leadership to show the people that they are in complete control,” said Rachel Minyoung Lee, senior analyst at the Open Nuclear Network in Vienna and an expert on North Korean state media. control the situation.
But the fact that state media creates too much of a gap between the regime’s claims and the people’s experience is also a risk to state media. “Mode of life and death by propaganda.”
In a rare televised speech in October 2020, Kim cried when describe difficulties His country faces the threat of Covid-19 and a series of devastating floods.
“Our people have placed their trust, as high as the sky, as deep as the sea, in me, but I have failed to always live contentedly. I’m really sorry for that,” Kim said, wiping his glasses as he praised the soldiers who are working hard on flood remediation projects.
“My efforts and sincerity are not enough to get our people out of the hardships of their lives.”
Analysts said that instead of showing emotion out of an outburst, the speech constituted a tough implementation of the strategic shift Kim outlined in a letter to officials in last year.
“What is important . . . is to make people deeply understand that the leader is not one who leaves the people, but one who shares life and death, joy and sorrow with the people,” Mr. Kim wrote to propagandists in 2019.
“In the name of highlighting his greatness, we ended up hiding the truth. . . [Only] when the people are seduced by the leader as a person and comrades show their absolute loyalty. “
The memo’s emphasis on humility and transparency has been reflected in the regime’s messaging since Kim took control following the death of his father Kim Jong Il in 2011.
“For decades, North Korea has claimed that its leaders have no flaws,” said Go Myong-hyun, a senior fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul. “But Kim Jong Un is different, admitting the problems. It was a strategy to differentiate himself from his father, and it worked. “
The coronavirus pandemic is the biggest challenge to Kim’s burgeoning communications strategy. State media’s quick record in May of 2 million cases of an unidentified “malignant virus” surprised many experts.
“My guess is when they say they’ve got the pandemic under control for two years, what they really mean is the virus hasn’t survived in the capital,” said Christopher Green, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group.
“That’s probably what has changed. But in the spirit of turning lemons into lemonade, they have since pivoted to propaganda about leader Kim Jong Un guiding the government’s response.”
Lee argues that the regime is “trying to be more transparent not for the sake of transparency, but because they need to raise awareness of the steps people need to take to fight the spread and ensure everyone’s purchase.” people for that process”.
Observers have cast doubt on North Korea’s official Covid-19 statistics, and the regime is believed to have started administering vaccines after initially rejecting them © Korea News Service / AP
She describes North Korea’s news reports as having glossy graphics with the latest official infection figures, and a gloomy public health official – dubbed “North Korea’s Anthony Fauci” – presiding over the news. Calm daily briefing.
“The regime has clearly learned a lot from Korean and Western Covid broadcasts,” added Lee, noting steady penetration of foreign media into this country in recent decades.
“But the people of North Korea have also suffered so much from the outside that their leaders continue to be mythologized as God-like figures.”
Green emphasizes the absurdity of the regime’s statistics on the number of Covid-19 infections and deaths, as well as that of North Korea. The recent statement was widely ridiculed that the virus entered the country through “alien things, climate phenomena and balloons” from South Korea.
North Korea imported 3,554 invasive ventilators from China in June, a large increase since April despite a sharp decline in trade between the two countries during the same period.
Pyongyang has also accepted some Covid-19 vaccines from China and has begun dose management, according to Gavi, the global vaccine alliance. Former mode refuse jabs . offer through the World Health Organization’s Covax initiative.
“They adopted a strategy of admitting problems when they couldn’t be denied,” says Green. “But their instincts of denial, sophistry, and concealment have remained essentially unchanged – this type of regime has a structural problem with honesty.”
Additional reporting by Song Jung-a in Seoul
