The political usefulness of the Covid crackdown and the refusal of vaccines in North Korea, from the Daily NK:
North Korea continues to refuse COVID-19 vaccine aid from the international community, even as the country’s authorities continue to emphasize the importance of disease control efforts. Many North Koreans believe the authorities refuse to adopt vaccines for economic and political reasons.
A high-ranking Daily NK source in North Korea said Monday that the state believes that accepting vaccines will lead to the opening of the border. He said the authorities cannot easily accept vaccines because vaccinations would remove their justification for keeping the border closed.
That is to say, North Korean authorities believe that the closure of the border and internal controls imposed ostensibly to stop COVID-19 are politically useful.
The source said there has been recent talk in the country that the authorities will decide on adopting a vaccine after efforts to restore a “state-centered economic order” are completed....
Since January 2020, North Korean authorities have used the spread of COVID-19 in China and the appearance of individuals with symptoms of the disease to put whole cities under lockdown and restrict internal movement, as well as to strengthen regular inspections by establishing separate quarantine checkpoints.
North Korea is also waging an intense struggle against so-called “anti-socialist and non-socialist behavior” through the December 2020 adoption of a law to eradicate “reactionary thought and culture.” In line with the border closure, the law completely blocks all communications and exchanges between North Koreans and the outside world.
A source in South Pyongan Province told Daily NK that because the country’s leadership believes thought and culture from the outside world weakens the ideological convictions of the people, it is bolstering inspections and continues to limit the issuance of travel certificates. He said people also complain that the state is trying to “suffocate” them, continuously intensifying quarantine efforts while refusing to vaccinate people.
All this essentially means that many ordinary North Koreans believe the authorities are using COVID-19 to strengthen internal controls.
In a further sign of the increasing level of internal surveillance, young people in Pyongyang are being stopped at random to have their phones inspected:
North Korean authorities have recently begun stopping young people at random on the streets of Pyongyang to inspect their cell phones, examining call histories, text messages, and even whether the phones have banned music or video files.
The emergence of these street inspections appears to be due to the increasing number of young people watching or listening to foreign videos or music, despite existing layers of controls and punishments directed toward those possessing content deemed problematic by the authorities.
A source in Pyongyang told Daily NK on Monday that since mid-April, crackdowns targeting the mobile phones of young people in the city have been taking place in the streets, including in market areas.
“The crackdowns are being carried out by members of inspection teams selected from the Socialist Patriotic Youth League branches in each district of the city,” the source said.
Orwellian is the only word...
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