Keeping the virus out

They take the coronavirus very seriously in North Korea:

A source in North Korea told Daily NK last Thursday that the authorities are installing concrete barriers and high-voltage wires along the North Korean border with China.

“[They are] building concrete walls taller than an adult and installing 3300 volt wires all along the entire area,” the source told Daily NK. “When [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Un signed an order [to build the barriers], supplies, materials, and personnel were sent [to the area]. The walls aren’t going up all at once everywhere, but are being installed depending on the conditions [of the area]. The first ground for the project was broken in the Chagang Province border area yesterday [Mar. 24].”

Movements to fortify the border are reportedly taking place because Kim Jong Un wrote a “handwritten directive” at the second plenary session of the Eighth Party Congress last month. The directive contained instructions to install concrete barriers and high-voltage lines along the entire border.

The source added that Kim Jong Un said that “the pandemic is an invisible enemy, and the border [with China] is the front line.” Kim emphasized that his directive to install the barriers and high-voltage wires is based on experience and lessons learned while dealing with the global COVID-19 pandemic. He emphasized that the barriers must be installed to prevent infiltration of the virus and impede the efforts of internal and external enemies to cause trouble within North Korea.

Kim pointed out that even though the Storm Corps (11th Division) was deployed to the border area to enforce a lockdown and had set up hidden guard posts every 20 meters, some North Koreans continued to engage in cross-border smuggling. Because there are limits on what humans alone can do to secure the border, he emphasized that the installation of barriers and high-voltage wires was necessary to prevent illegal border crossings.

After the directive was issued, the party’s Central Committee issued an order in mid-February to the Ministry of State Security, the Ministry of Defense, the General Staff Department of the Korean People’s Army, and the General Political Bureau to guarantee the allocation of cement, copper, and other materials needed for the project within the first quarter of the year. The source told Daily NK that related economic sectors and relative units have procured all of the materials needed.

Well, they take the virus seriously except when they don't:

At the endless meetings and lectures given by the Respected Comrade Kim Jong-un - here at the First Short Course for Chief Secretaries of City and County Party Committees earlier this month - no masks or signs of social distancing are evident. It would be disrespectful to the dignity of the Supreme Leader.

The idea is, presumably, that the coronavirus is something foreign, something alien, a threat to the socialist purity of the country under the sacred Mount Paektu bloodline, in keeping with their ideas about the genetic purity of the Korean race. So it's imperative to keep it out at all costs - and deny the possibility that there could be any cases whatsoever in such a perfect country.

Most interestingly, North Korean authorities ordered the dispatch of special units of military engineers to the site to proceed with the construction of the barriers.

In the early days of Kim Jong Un’s reign, CCTV cameras and electric barbed wire fences were installed along the entire border area to prevent defections. During that time, border patrols in each area worked independently on the construction of barriers for the portion of the border that they were responsible for guarding. This time, however, separate construction personnel were dispatched in order to ensure that patrol duties conducted by the border patrol are not impeded.

So the barriers originally installed to prevent defections are now being massively strengthened to prevent any incursion of the virus. And all that electricity, when the supply for domestic consumption is sporadic at best.

At least there's no problem with the cement supply.

Comments

[Domain]

I don't think North Korea has many options. If they let a pandemic happen it would be a catastrophic disaster because they do not have the medical resources to treat their people. That is why they make every effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus at any cost.