NYT Officials drastically understated outbreaks and deaths, depriving citizens of help, two U.S. research groups report, citing interviews with people inside North Korea. North Korea has long claimed that it defeated the Covid-19 pandemic without vaccines, losing only 74 lives in what it called “a miracle unprecedented in the world’s public health history.” But a report released on Tuesday said the government lied and left many of its people to die without proper health care or access to outside help.
As the pandemic raged, the already woeful economic and public health conditions of ordinary North Koreans rapidly worsened as a result of their government’s efforts, especially in the first two years, to deny that the virus was spreading, according to a report compiled by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies and the George W. Bush Institute. Pyongyang’s repeated rejections of international help and its draconian crackdown on the movement of people made their suffering worse, the report said.