South Korea says it will spare no effort to help North Korea amid COVID outbreak

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South Korea says it will spare no effort to help North Korea amid COVID outbreak 'If North Korea responds (to our support), we will spare no medicines including COVID-19 vaccines, medical equipment and health personnel' Photo by KCNA via REUTERS

Article content SEOUL — South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol said on Monday the country will spare no effort to help North Korea, as the isolated nation battles a COVID-19 outbreak, and reiterated he will remain open for humanitarian aid.

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tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or South Korea says it will spare no effort to help North Korea amid COVID outbreak Back to video “If North Korea responds (to our support), we will spare no medicines including COVID-19 vaccines, medical equipment and health personnel,” said Yoon in a speech at the plenary session of the National Assembly. Separately in the speech, Yoon also said he will discuss with U.S. President Joe Biden ways to strengthen cooperation on the global supply chain through the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. Biden is scheduled to visit the country this week. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called the growing outbreak of a fever “the big upheaval since the nation’s founding” as state media reported more new cases Saturday. There were about 296,000 cases of fever with 15 deaths on Saturday, the Korean Central News Agency said, adding to the more than 170,000 cases reported the previous day. The total death toll stands at 42.

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Article content Kim has ordered a lockdown of major cities since the country said earlier this week it found a single Covid case within its borders. With some 820,000 cases reported since, Kim is seeking to beef up quarantine efforts as the outbreak has the potential to devastate a population that relies on an antiquated health care system and remains largely malnourished, with likely no vaccines. In a Workers’ Party meeting on Saturday, Kim called on officials to be confident they can contain the contagion as the outbreak remains limited to certain areas and to learn from other countries, especially China, on ways to deal with it, the Korean Central News Agency reported. He also criticized party organs for “incompetence and a lack of responsibility” and called for preparing the political organization to win the fight. Until Thursday, North Korea had denied it had any Covid cases, a claim doubted by experts in the U.S., Japan and other countries. It has also refused vaccines from the outside world.

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