The leader appears in black raincoat. In front of him are dozens of soldiers and men who work in civil construction, identified by orange and pink helmets, instead of the usual yellow. “At the moment when the Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un arrived at the place of the innovative ceremony, all the builders gave loud cheers in their honor, he who has made tireless efforts, with an ardent love for the provo, to open a wide avenue on which to follow a new advance in Korean socialism ”, describes the North Korean state news agency, KCNA.
In front of the small crowd, Kim Jong-un announces that construction of the new Pyongyang General Hospital will begin there, scheduled to open in October 2020, to serve the health and well-being of the “best people in the world”, as is North Korean leaders often refer to the country’s population. Then, with a shovel, makes the first hole and throws the sand into a pit dug for the purpose.
In normal times, it would be just another ceremony in the style of the Pyongyang regime, with cheers to the Great Leader and enthusiasm for a public work. But on March 17, 2020, the announcement of the construction of a hospital does not happen by accident. The world is paralyzed by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has already killed thousands. In North Korea, officially, there is no recorded case – but that is a fact that all the experts heard by the Observer doubt.
More than that, a ceremony like this, announcing the lightning construction of a hospital, is a clear sign that the Kim Jong-un regime is concerned with the pandemic and wants to reassure the population. “He ordered this work to be done to manage the atmosphere of people’s irritation, should there be a spread of cases and ongoing deaths,” observes Nam Sung-wook, director of the North Korea Center at the University of Korea ( South Korea) and a former member of South Korean intelligence services.
Jean Lee, a former Associated Press correspondent in Pyongyang and now an investigator at the Wilson Center, agrees: “North Korea says it doesn’t have a single case of Covid-19. I find it hard to believe that, given the long border it shares with China [1.450 quilómetros de comprimento] and the regular flights that took place between Pyongyang and Chinese cities, before being canceled ”, he points out. North Korea may well be called the “Hermit Kingdom”, but the truth is that, in relation to China, it is far from being hermetically sealed. What is not lacking are traffickers who pass from one side to the other and bring with them goods, goods and even cell phones, clothes or movies. Given the scenario of these, and taking into account that China was the first country where cases of the new coronavirus were registered, the probability that some case has been registered in North Korea seems, therefore, high.
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