The Hermit Kingdom has gone into lockdown after identifying its first official COVID-19 cases and deaths..Six people have died after contracting a fever and one tested positive for the BA.2 Omicron variant, according to North Korea's state run media agency KCNA..“A fever whose cause couldn't be identified explosively spread nationwide from late April,” they said..According to the North Korean government, more than 350,000 people in the country have developed fevers since the end of April, with a whopping 18,000 people reporting symptoms Thursday..A strict national lockdown was ordered following a “maximum national emergency” declaration, and as many as 187,800 people are now in quarantine..Thursday marked the first time the country of 26 million people confirmed a single case of COVID-19 since the pandemic began. The only countries that have now not reported cases are now Turkmenistan and Tuvalu..Back in 2020, former CIA analyst Jung H. Pak said it was "impossible" for the Hermit Kingdom to not have a single case of COVID-19, adding that leader Kim Jong Un was lying to show the world he had control over his country in the face its terrible economic conditions..Kim Jong was hospitalized in March 2020 for a cardiovascular procedure, creating speculation that the "Supreme Leader" had contracted COVID..North Koreans would be particularity susceptible to the coronavirus and other diseases, given that the country has low vaccination rates, chronic food shortages and widespread malnutrition..Human rights activist Yeonmi Park said living in North Korea was like the movie The Hunger Games, with people eating rats or resorting to cannibalism to survive. She had to resort to eating dragonflies and cicadas after she contracted a chronic case of pellagra due to malnutrition..According to a 2019 Johns Hopkins University study on countries' abilities to respond to a pandemic, North Korea’s healthcare system ranked 193 out of 195 countries..The communist, nuclear-armed country claims it provides free healthcare to all its citizens, but non-profits believe the policy only applies to its uppermost classes.
