The country suffered significant damage from the floods. But its leader, Kim Jong-un, says that Covid-19 could bring in humanitarian aid. SEOUL , South Korea — North Korea 's chief, Kim Jong-un, says the nation faces "two crises simultaneously"—fighting coronavirus spread and dealing with severe flood damage. But the state news media announced on Friday that Mr. Kim ordered his country not to accept any foreign assistance for fear that outside support could bring in Covid-19.
Mr Kim, who spoke at a meeting of the ruling Politburo Workers ' Party on Thursday, said he sympathized with the "great suffering" of families who had lost their homes in the flooding, staying in temporary shelters.
But he said "the situation in which the spread of the worldwide malignant virus has escalated requires us not to allow any outside help for flood damage but to shut down the border more tightly and conduct strict anti-epidemic research," according to the North 's official Korean Central News Agency.
The pandemic and flood double-whammy calamities worsened Mr. Kim's economic troubles. The Northern economy, already hamstrung by UN sanctions for its nuclear weapons production, has gone into a tailspin this year as fear of coronavirus infections cut deeply into its exports and imports with China, the biggest trading partner in the region.
An exceptionally long season of monsoons as well as this month's torrential rains have set off floods and landslides in both North and South Korea. But the North said the natural disaster had damaged 96,300 hectares of farmland and 16,680 homes, as well as roads, embankments and railway lines. Much of the damage was recorded in North Korea's southern and western provinces, a breadbasket that has experienced severe shortages of food even during normal years.
North Korea also took drastic measures against the coronavirus, closing its borders in late January and quarantining all Pyongyang diplomats for one month.
Last month it locked down Kaesong's border area, suspecting a defector who crossed South Korea 's border to carry the virus with him.
The rapid actions of North Korea were motivated by concerns that an outbreak of the Covid-19 could seriously threaten its woefully underequipped public health system and economy, still suffering under international sanctions, analysts said.
North Korea, however, lifted the lockdown on Friday, "based on scientific verification and a professional anti-epidemic organisation's guarantee."
The North Korean state news media has long maintained that there are no cases of coronavirus in the country although the assertion is being challenged by outside experts.
The North hasn't revealed whether the defector that crossed back from South Korea has tested the virus positively, and officials in the South have said there is no evidence that he has.
CORONAVIRUS SCHOOLS BRIEFING: The pandemic is that education is on the rise. Get the latest news and tips as students return to classes.
Bookmark
The global pandemic and creeping flood damage comes as Mr. Kim has struggled through his stagnant diplomatic ties with President Trump to lift the sanctions of the United Nations.
In refusing foreign assistance, Mr. Kim seemed to refuse Seoul and Washington an opportunity to thaw ties with the North through humanitarian shipments.
"North Korea 's rejection of flood relief is ostensibly to prevent Covid-19 from being transmitted into the region," said Leif-Eric Easley, an international studies professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. "But the Kim government is aggressively politizing humanitarian aid, as it does not want to reveal weakness to the domestic population or external rivals."
North Korea shut down trading with neighboring China, which accounts for nine-tenths of its foreign trade, and clamped down on smugglers who continue to work their thriving illegal markets. The country's exports to China, hard hit by border shutdown, plunged in the first half of this year to $27 million,
According to the Korea Center for National Unification in Seoul, a 75 per cent fall from a year earlier. Imports from China fell to $380 million , down 67 per cent.
According to the Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, about 60 percent of North Korea 's population is facing food insecurity this year.
The fears of floods and coronavirus have also complicated Mr. Kim's plan to celebrate the ruling Workers' Party's 75th anniversary with pomp and spectacle on Oct. 10.
"We can't make the flood-affected people celebrate the party homeless's 75th anniversary," Mr. Kim said during the Politburo meeting, urging his government to get people's lives back to normal as quickly as possible.
In recent weeks, the North 's leader has toured the flood-affected areas, often filmed driving his own vehicle, and ordered the release of reserve grains for the hard-hit towns, in an apparent attempt to show what state news media has called his "people-loving" leadership.
Mr. Kim replaced Premier Kim Jae-ryong, who was in charge of the cabinet and the economy, with Kim Tok-hun, a senior official in the Workers ' Party, during the Politburo meeting. Within the party, the departing Premier was granted a senior post.
Mr. Kim also appointed Ri Pyong-chol, an official responsible for the development of North Korea's missile and nuclear weapons, to the Politburo 's highest leadership body, along with the current Premier.