Seoul: North Korea has sent three of its largest cargo planes to China to pick up medical supplies, local media reports say.
Pyongyang announced its first Covid cases last week and has since reported nearly two million cases of “fever” and 63 deaths as the virus tears through its unvaccinated population.
State media reports do not specify how many cases and deaths have tested positive for Covid, but experts say the country’s creaking health system will struggle to test and diagnose at this scale.
The outbreak was an acknowledgment that Pyongyang’s harsh two-year-long coronavirus blockade, imposed at great economic cost since the start of the pandemic, had failed.
Officials said South Korea issued a new offer of aid last week, but Pyongyang has yet to respond to Seoul’s offer.
Beijing—the last major economy to maintain a zero-Covid policy, which is grappling with its own nationwide outbreak—also made a new offer of aid to Pyongyang.
And, despite no official confirmation from either side, it appears North Korea picked them up: sending three Air Koryo cargo planes to Shenyang to receive medical supplies, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported this week. Gave.
The report said these aircraft were Soviet-built IL-76 transport cargo planes capable of carrying 50 tonnes of cargo, some of the largest aircraft in the nuclear-armed state.
Yonhap, citing unnamed sources, said the North chose the air route over land “to expedite the transport of large goods”.
Seoul-based specialist site NK News said on Thursday that satellite imagery showed the three planes “matching the dimensions of the IL-76 at Shenyang Airport on Monday morning”.
Other images show planes being “moved to a remote part of Pyongyang airport” and indicate possible signs of “freight being unloaded and stored” to avoid contamination.
Representatives for Air Koryo at Shenyang airport and Shanghai told AFP they had no information about flights from North Korea.
State media reported Thursday that since declaring a “maximum emergency” over the outbreak, the North has ramped up production of medical supplies such as antipyretic drugs and thermometers.
The official KCNA reported that thousands of tonnes of salt had been sent to the capital city “under emergency orders” for disinfectant production.
South Korea’s new President Yoon Suk-yol has launched a scathing attack on the North’s military provocation, promising that it will “not back down” on providing medical aid if Pyongyang accepts.
But the North has not responded to their proposals.
Experts have warned of a major health crisis in the north, which has one of the world’s worst health care systems.
The poor country has poorly equipped hospitals, few intensive care units and no COVID treatment drugs or mass testing capacity.
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