North Korea Covid: Why Kim Jong Un is cutting off China
CNNCNN — Kim Jong Un appears to have kicked North Korea’s pandemic prevention plan into overdrive, further tightening the country’s nearly impassible borders, cutting off nearly all trade with China, and even allegedly executing a customs official for failing to handle imported goods appropriately. China is North Korea’s biggest trading partner and effectively the Kim regime’s economic lifeline – the country basically doesn’t import significantly from anywhere else. The new customs figures, if accurate, show that Kim appears to be willing to pare back – or even cut off – trade with China to prevent the virus from entering North Korea, even if it means risking the country’s food and fuel supply. Evans Revere, a former US acting assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, believes the latest steps taken by the Kim regime “suggest that an already serious situation – the pandemic – has gotten a lot worse.” Revere said the situation in North Korea is looking particularly dire because of a combination of factors that the pandemic is exacerbating: severe weather, potential crop shortages, the impact of international sanctions, and cutting off trade with China.