ⓒ YONHAP News

First off, Doctor Kim explains the significance of the enactment of North Korea’s Emergency Law on Prevention of Epidemics. 

A novel respiratory virus that originated in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, hit the entire world in 2020 under the name of novel coronavirus. Upon hearing the news of the outbreak of the new virus, North Korea shut its borders. At first, the North probably thought that the infectious disease would disappear in a little while. But it felt that might not be the case, and the country found it necessary to come up with more proactive measures. That’s why North Korea introduced the Emergency Law on Prevention of Epidemics. 

North Korea’s healthcare system mostly focuses on the prevention of infectious diseases, and the country’s medical infrastructure falls far behind global standards. Its quick border closure can be understood in this context.

North Korea established a health department in its Provisional People’s Committee in 1946 and set a broad principle that the state should guarantee people’s health. The country adopted the Public Health Law in 1980 to outline the principle of healthcare in a more specific and systematic way. 

The Public Health Law that was enacted on April 3, 1980, states that the foundation of socialist medicine is preventive medicine. Under the principle, management of all diseases, including infectious ones, is focused on prevention. Medical doctors in North Korea visit local residents in their regions and explain to them how to stay healthy and not to catch any infectious disease. For instance, doctors advise the people to wash their hands well, wear facial masks, refrain from moving around and notify the medical staff of their movement path in advance. 

In North Korea, the hygiene inspection unit consisting of disease control officials and chosen citizens thoroughly examines sanitary conditions of not only schools, enterprises and restaurants but individual homes as well. 

As we know, poor sanitation is linked to transmission of diseases. Officials in charge of hygiene inspection enter enterprises, factories and even individual homes any time to check the sanitary conditions there. If a place meets the hygiene requirements, the officials put an approval sticker on the gate. If a place fails to do, a black sticker is attached on the gate. Individuals would be embarrassed and under heavy pressure if the black sticker is put on the gate of their house. If enterprises or restaurants get the black sticker, they suffer from disadvantages, like a business suspension. Little wonder that ordinary citizens are afraid of the hygiene inspection officials. 

North Korea adopted the Law on Prevention of Infectious Diseases in 1997. The law was later revised four times to set more detailed rules concerning the prevention of infectious diseases before April 2020, when it was again amended. In the previous month, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Perhaps, North Korea believed that the COVID-19 situation was pretty serious. And in August that year, the country introduced the Emergency Law on Prevention of Epidemics. 

While the Law on Prevention of Infectious Diseases is only about contagious diseases, the Emergency Law on Prevention of Epidemics deals with such diseases as a national issue. 

Under the new law, when an infectious disease poses a great risk to the safety of the state, the country may declare a national emergency and the transition to the emergency quarantine system. The system involve the Central Emergency Command for Epidemic Response led by the premier of the Cabinet, the military, the intelligence agency, the Prosecutors’ Office, the police and health officials. That is, the law mobilizes all possible means of controlling society. This is quite different from the country’s previous emergency quarantine system. Moreover, the law specifies different units in charge of transporting, containing and treating patients. It seems North Korea tries to manage the pandemic situation in a very tight and careful manner based on this law. 

The new law concerning the pandemic emergency consists of five chapters and 70 articles. Under the basic principle of implementing quick and active countermeasures to prevent the entry and spread of any infectious disease, the law specifies how to respond to an infectious disease, establish a national emergency response system and hold violators of the law legally accountable. It spells out different levels of disease-related alerts and countermeasures, in accordance with the spread of transmission and the risk of infectious diseases. 

The emergency quarantine is classified into Level 1, Special Level and Super Special Level. The Level 1 alert is issued when there is a possibility that an infectious disease may enter the country, while the Super Special Level warning is issued when a disease is so dangerous that it can jeopardize the safety of the public. I think the Super Special Level is applied to the COVID-19 situation. 

When an infectious disease broke out in North Korea in the past, household doctors and doctors at local quarantine centers would examine patients with the disease and transport them in cooperation. But under the new law, a group is solely responsible for transporting patients quickly, while two other groups are in charge of containing the patients and treating them, respectively. Containing here means restraining patients from moving around and keeping them in check. This part makes the new emergency quarantine law conspicuously different from the previous Law on Prevention of Infectious Diseases. North Korea is probably well aware of the importance of blocking the novel coronavirus from spreading. 

The new law also covers guidelines concerning the transfer of patients with an infectious disease, thorough disinfection of relevant areas, close monitoring of those who contacted the patients and behavior at quarantine places. 

I remember North Korea operated separate quarantine zones in the early-and mid-1990s, when paratyphoid broke out in the country. At the time, there were so many patients that clinics allocated their one entire floor to the patients, with the floor serving as a quarantine zone. In the past, measles patients were supposed to stay home for self-quarantine. But North Korea enforces the new quarantine rules more strictly, since it believes that the current COVID-19 situation is different. It is not easy for ordinary people to enter Pyongyang even at normal times. Amid the pandemic now, I imagine North Korea controls the entry to the capital more tightly. 

The new emergency quarantine law describes legal penalties for violators in detail. It distinguishes penalties for individuals from those for groups and elaborates on the types and levels of punishment. 

The lowest-level punishment for individuals is a fine of 5,000 North Korean won. For instance, those who do not wear masks and those who fail to follow quarantine rules at home are subject to a fine of 5,000 won. For general citizens, the amount is quite a burden, considering that an average North Korean worker earned a monthly salary of 5,000 to 7,000 won as of September 7, 2021. 

Fines for organizations and enterprises are between 10-thousand and one million won. A failure to sterilize public places is subject to a fine of 50-thousand won. Acts of disposing food or used goods improperly and bringing in unidentified things from outside are punishable by a penalty of between 500-thousand and one million won.

In fact, fines are the lowest-level penalty. Heavier punishments include unpaid labor, imprisonment and even death penalty. Capital punishment for violations of a quarantine law sounds outrageous. But North Korea could enforce the extreme measure by using the quarantine rules as an excuse to get rid of someone, not just to punish violators of the rules. 

The law also stipulates legal penalties for foreigners residing in North Korea. Under the law, if foreigners who live in the country during the emergency quarantine period fail to comply with the rules and disrupt the quarantine-related efforts, they shall pay a fine of between 10-thousand won and one million won. If the violation is deemed severe, they shall be expelled from the country. 

Formerly, very few North Korean rules mentioned punishment for foreigners. This time around, the new law included penalties for foreigners probably because COVID-19 originated from a foreign country and more people are coming in and out of North Korea, compared to the past. Also, foreigners in the North may not observe North Korean rules properly, and the North believes that this may contribute to spreading the virus. The new law makes a long description of legal measures against foreigners violating the quarantine protocols. It looks like North Korea is serious about enforcing the rules and imposing harsh penalties on any violators. 

North Korea’s official Korean Central TV reported the Omicron variant of the coronavirus on November 27, 2021. It seems North Korea is very nervous about the emergence of the highly contagious variant. 

According to the World Health Organization’s weekly report on COVID-19 on December 17, North Korea’s Health Ministry conducted COVID-19 tests on some 48-thousand people by December 9 but found no confirmed cases. Officially, North Korea has not reported any positive case of COVID-19 so far. The country has turned down vaccine offers twice. 

North Korea has reported zero confirmed cases of COVID-19, but I doubt it. Still, the number of infection cases will not be as high as we expect, given the country’s strict border controls and lockdown measures. North Korea’s healthcare infrastructure is very poor. If many people die of COVID-19 and if the country cannot handle the large number of bodies, the rumors about the extreme situation will leak out, no matter how tightly the North controls society. But there’s no such report. I guess North Korea’s strict pandemic blockade has been working in some way. 

Analysts point out that North Korea’s emergency quarantine law has many limitations, in terms of the inadequate classification of infectious disease risks and the lack of articles about international cooperation. Most experts say that North Korea needs to shift its focus from border restrictions to more active prevention and treatment as well as cooperation with the international community. 

Amid the pandemic, international cooperation has become increasingly important. But the North Korean law does not have any article about this matter. For now, North Korea’s only solution is to shut its door to the outside world. But I think a policy like this will only deteriorate people’s lives. North Korea is deeply concerned that the contagious disease may enter the country. In cooperation with the international community, South Korea could propose establishing a drive-through inspection system in border areas in North Korea so the North feels less scared about bringing in goods from outside. The stable provision of goods and products will improve the public livelihoods in the North. North Korea seems to believe that border blocking is in the best interest of the country. Hopefully, the North will realize that’s not the case and the country will no longer keep its people locked up. 

To fight the COVID-19 pandemic, international cooperation is essential. South and North Korea, which shares a border, need to promote academic communication and devise detailed solutions together. Taking one step forward, they will also have to map out specific plans about healthcare cooperation in the post-COVID-19 era.