Category: General

North Korea reported 21 additional deaths Friday among people experiencing fevers, the official KCNA news agency said Saturday, amid the nation’s first outbreak of COVID-19.

A Reuters report, quoting KCNA, said nearly 281,000 people had received treatment and 27 in all had died since the fever, the origin of which has not been identified, was noticed in the country in late April.

State media did not say whether COVID-19 caused the additional deaths, Reuters said.

KCNA said earlier Friday that the omicron variant of the coronavirus had been confirmed as the cause of one death.

Speaking at an emergency Workers’ Party meeting Saturday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said this could be the largest crisis to fall on the state, given how seriously the COVID-19 transmission has affected the world. Nonetheless, he said the virus was not unstoppable as the infections are occurring within containable areas, calling on the people to have confidence to overcome the difficulty as soon as possible.

He also called for lessons to be drawn from the experience of advanced countries, in particular China, and its “abundant” quarantine achievements.

The public acknowledgment of the COVID cases over the past three days has been unprecedented from a state that until recently had insisted it was maintaining a status of “zero” COVID-19 cases. Before, it had broadcast stories about disinfection efforts on state TV for months, alongside news briefs about how the “malicious virus” was crippling other parts of the globe.

Visiting the state-run emergency epidemic-prevention headquarters Thursday, Kim criticized its system as having a “vulnerable point,” noting the capital was emerging as the center of transmission.

April held two significant anniversaries — the 110th anniversary of North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung’s birth on April 15, followed 10 days later by the 90th Military Foundation Day. The events drew massive, unmasked crowds to tight spaces in Pyongyang, now the center of the wave of infections.

The latest KCNA virus situation report indicated that fewer than half of an estimated 524,440 people sickened by the fever’s “explosive” spread had recovered.

Damage control

As the news carried by KCNA sank in Friday, a spokesperson for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said the administration stood ready to assist North Korea with vaccines and other medical supplies.

“It’s worse than it appears,” a second presidential official told reporters, without providing details. “It is not a simple problem.”

Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the Seoul-based University of North Korean Studies, told VOA that Pyongyang’s voluntary disclosure of a severe COVID-19 situation appears to have two objectives.

“North Korea publicized its COVID-19 situation likely because, one, it requires the engagement of its people in order to overcome the virus,” he said. “And two, it was indirectly sending a message to the international community, that if it came to it, it would need help.”

Answering reporters’ questions on whether working-level talks would be initiated, President Yoon on Friday said, “Of course. We’ll start with channels at our Unification Ministry.”

Yoon’s pledge came after Kwon Young-se, his nominee for unification minister in Yoon’s new cabinet, said during a confirmation hearing that he would push for humanitarian assistance for the North, including COVID treatment, syringes and other medical supplies.

North Korea remained unresponsive to overtures from the previous Moon Jae-in government after the highly trumpeted U.S.-North Korea Singapore Summit of 2018 fell apart. Now some in Seoul are cautiously optimistic that South Korea’s successful strategies for battling omicron could, given the circumstances, be shared as part of broader efforts to facilitate a peninsular thaw.

“The Yoon Suk Yeol government has said it would practice a ‘principles-based’ North Korea policy with the South Korea-U.S. alliance as its foundation,” said professor Yang.

While many of Seoul’s top officials maintain a worldview of “denuclearization first, inter-Korean exchange second,” Yang added, they’ve also expressed a willingness to separate humanitarian assistance from political and military issues.

“Thus, I view a potential cooperation effort on COVID-19 as a starting point for bringing inter-Korean dialogue back to life,” he said.

North Korea has yet to take practical steps toward seeking outside help. The World Health Organization’s DPRK representative Edwin Salvador told VOA Korean this week the office has yet to receive an official report from Pyongyang’s health ministry on the state’s COVID-19 cases or related deaths. Although there are currently no vaccines earmarked for North Korea, he said the WHO was committed to working with state authorities.

North Korea so far appears to be sticking to its long-established cultural ideology of self-reliance. Addressing officials at the epidemic-prevention headquarters in Pyongyang, KCNA reported, Kim Jong Un expressed his conviction that North Korea would “perfectly block and terminate” sources of the virus and lead a “breakthrough victory in the great epidemic-prevention campaign.”

Weapons program

U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to visit South Korea and Japan from May 20-24 and hold talks with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts. North Korea will be “front and center in the agenda” for talks with Yoon, said White House spokesperson Jen Psaki on Monday. Authorities in Seoul and Washington have warned that Pyongyang is planning another nuclear test in the future, a move that would irritate even its closest allies, China and Russia.

“North Korea looks to have completed preparations for a nuclear test,” Yoon’s spokesperson told reporters Friday. “But before they conduct a nuclear test, there is a possibility it would test a series of missiles first.”

Noticeably absent from KCNA’s Friday coverage were reports of three projectiles Pyongyang launched into waters east of the Korean Peninsula on Thursday, which the South Korean military said were short-range ballistic missiles. It marks the third straight missile test that North Korea’s state media has failed to report.

“They probably have not mentioned it because the missiles were not the finalized advanced missiles North Korea is aiming for, but tests toward completing the advanced missile,” said Yang of the University of North Korean Studies. “The leadership likely made an internal decision that it would be unnecessary to make the tests an issue.”

Source: Voice of America

The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned Thursday at the second U.S.-led virtual COVID summit, co-hosted by Belize, Germany, Indonesia and Senegal.

“So although reported cases and deaths are now decreasing globally, it is misguided to think this pandemic is over. The pandemic is not over anywhere until it’s over everywhere,” Tedros said.

“In fact, cases are increasing in more than 70 countries. At the same time, testing rates globally are plummeting, making us blind to the evolution of the virus,” the WHO chief said. “And almost one billion people in lower-income countries remain unvaccinated. We must continue to support all countries to reach 70% as soon as possible, with a focus on those most at risk.”

Meanwhile, the first African factory licensed to produce COVID vaccines may soon shut down that production line, according to a New York Times report, because the facility has not received any orders.

The newspaper reported commercial production of the COVID vaccine never began at Aspen Pharmacare in South Africa.

The announcement late last year that COVID vaccines would be produced at the South African facility, after the company signed a deal with Johnson and Johnson, was widely touted as a solution to the continent’s unequal access to the shots.

According to the Times, Stavros Nicolaou, the head of Aspen’s strategic trade development, said that without any orders in the next six weeks, its COVID vaccine production line would have to shut down.

The latest tally from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center shows there have been more than 520 million global COVID cases and more than 6 million deaths. More than 11 billion vaccines have been administered, Johns Hopkins said.

Source: Voice of America

As the U.S. nears 1 million COVID-19 deaths, U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday that those who died left behind “a family, a community, and a nation forever changed because of this pandemic.

Biden said in a statement that Congress needs to continue funding for testing, vaccines and treatments, and said the nation “must remain vigilant.”

“To those who are grieving, and asking yourself how will you go on without him or what will you do without her, I understand,” Biden said. “I know the pain of that black hole in your heart. It is unrelenting. But I also know the ones you love are never truly gone. They will always be with you.”

The United States has recorded about 82 million total COVID cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It has recorded nearly 999,000 deaths, according to John Hopkins University data.

New cases and hospitalizations have been rising in recent weeks, but the number of deaths has stayed relatively low, at around 300 per day, down from more than 3,000 per day in February of this year.

Source: Voice of America

China’s export growth slumped in April to its lowest level in almost two years as the country’s “zero-COVID” policy continues to impact manufacturers and, according to trade experts, pushes many foreign businesses to reconsider operations in China.

Exports in terms of dollars grew 3.9% in April from the year-ago period, marking the slowest pace since June 2020, according to China’s customs administration.

They also dropped sharply from the 14.7% growth reported in March, according to official figures.

Import growth was essentially flat in April, improving slightly from a 0.1% decline in March and a bit better than the 3.0% contraction by a Reuters poll.

The weak figures reflect the state of China’s trade sector, which accounts for about one-third of gross domestic product. The sector has been losing momentum as COVID-19 restrictions across the country disturb supply chains in major centers such as Shanghai, which has been under a lockdown since late March.

It’s not clear when authorities will fully lift the restrictions. The city tightened them over the weekend as President Xi Jinping pledged to “unswervingly” double down on the zero-COVID policy.

Auto factories and other manufacturers that tried to keep operating by having staff live at their facilities were forced to reduce production because of supply chain disturbances and logistics issues.

Tesla Inc. has halted most production at its Shanghai plant because of problems securing parts for its electric vehicles, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

According to the memo, the plant planned to manufacture fewer than 200 vehicles at its Shanghai factory on Tuesday, far below the roughly 1,200 units a day it was producing shortly after reopening on April 19 after a 22-day closure.

“Shanghai’s lockdown had impacted components of China’s economy that are the most vulnerable — service workers, delivery drivers and other people still working,” Rui Zhong, program associate at the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, said in an email. “This includes Tesla workers who are producing luxury vehicles in conditions that have been described as them sleeping in factories.”

Tesla’s sales in China slumped by 98% in April, according to data released Tuesday by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA). After reopening, the factory sold 1,512 vehicles in April, down from 65,814 cars sold in March, according to CPCA.

Other automakers also reported a steep slowdown in sales and production for April. Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker, reported that it was halting some operations in eight plants in Japan from May 16 to 21 because of a parts shortage resulting from the lockdown in Shanghai, according to the Automotive News website. More foreign businesses in China are cutting revenue expectations and plans for future investment because of China’s recent COVID-19 outbreak and related restrictions.

A survey released Monday by the American Chamber of Commerce in China shows that 58% of survey respondents said they have decreased their 2022 revenue projections, up from 54% in a similar survey in April. Meanwhile, 52% of respondents have already either delayed or decreased investments in China.

The latest study, conducted from April 29 to May 5, covered 121 companies with operations in China.

Gordon Chang, author of the 2021 book “The Coming Collapse of China,” told VOA Mandarin in an email that despite concerns raised by foreign businesses, China would stick to its strict coronavirus containment policy at least through the end of May.

“Many, however, think the lockdown of Shanghai will continue through at least the end of this month and the ‘zero-COVID’ policy will continue through the (Chinese Communist) Party’s 20th National Congress, which will be held in the fall if tradition holds,” Chang said. The congress is scheduled to convene in the second half of 2022.

Source: Voice of America

North Korea, which has largely kept its borders shuttered over the pandemic, Thursday confirmed its first detection of the omicron variant of COVID-19 in the country.

According to the official Korea Central News Agency, samples were taken from a group of people in the capital, Pyongyang, on Sunday. A rigorous genetic sequence analysis found that the results were consistent with the virus BA.2. The number of people who tested positive for COVID-19 is unknown.

It marks the first time North Korea has acknowledged a case of COVID-19 since it closed its borders in February 2020 and instituted its own quarantine measures amid the global pandemic spread.

A Politburo meeting was held in response to the “most critical emergency,” at which North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered a lockdown in all cities and counties, directing businesses and production facilities to operate in isolation to completely block the spread of the “malicious virus.”

He said the party and government will mobilize medical supplies that have been stockpiled in anticipation of such an emergency, state media reported. He ordered border, sea and air defenses to be strengthened.

More dangerous than the virus, Kim alleged, was the “unscientific fear, lack of faith and weak will.” He added that the state would win the “current sudden situation” given its strong ability to organize and praised the people’s awareness “cemented during the prolonged emergency epidemic prevention campaign.”

North Korea has not likely vaccinated most of its 26 million people, if any. State media outlets have not reported any vaccination efforts. The United Nations’ COVAX program confirmed earlier this month that it had reallocated its vaccines earmarked for North Korea to other countries, after Pyongyang failed to accept the supply for months.

Source: Voice of America

Uzbek cotton farmers are celebrating the lifting of a 13-year-old international boycott of their product following a finding that the cautiously reform-minded government is no longer using organized forced labor to harvest the economically vital crop.

The decision will open the door to long-closed markets for one of the world’s biggest cotton producers, including major American clothing retailers such as Amazon, Gap, J.Crew, Target and Walmart.

The U.S.-based Cotton Campaign, a coalition of more than 300 businesses and organizations, initiated the boycott in 2009. At that time, it said, the Uzbek authorities were “forcing over 1 million children and adults, including medical staff, public sector employees and students, to pick cotton every year during the harvest.”

The boycott ended after the Uzbek Forum for Human Rights, a Cotton Campaign partner, reported this spring that it found “no systemic or systematic, government-imposed forced labor during the cotton harvest” in 2021.

Despite the Uzbek Forum’s finding of discrete incidents of forced labor in several regions, the Cotton Campaign said, “This historic achievement comes after years of persistent engagement by Uzbek activists, international advocates and multinational brands, together with a commitment by the government of Uzbekistan to end its use of forced labor.”

The campaign now urges end users to conduct human rights due diligence at all stages of production — at cotton farms, spinners, fabric mills and manufacturing units — and ensure to have “credible, independent mechanisms in place for forced labor prevention, monitoring, grievance and remedy.”

The Cotton Campaign also fights state-sponsored forced labor in Turkmenistan, which it defines as “one of the most closed and repressive countries in the world.”

It says the authoritarian government there every year “forces tens of thousands of public sector workers to pick cotton in hazardous and unsanitary conditions and extorts money from public employees to pay harvest expenses.”

Jonas Astrup, the International Labor Organization technical adviser in Tashkent, told VOA that freeing Uzbek cotton “from systemic forced and child labor is a political victory for the country.”

“They did not get rid of the boycott to please the international community but for Uzbekistan itself. Responsibility and accountability ultimately lie with the Uzbek people for how and whether they trust the system and how and whether the government can deliver for its citizens,” he said. “But it’s time to seize economic benefits of job creation, economic growth, attracting trade and investment to the country.”

Astrup said the biggest root cause of forced labor “was the state quota system for cotton production and official complicity in it. That has been changed but will take time, of course. But the system of production quotas for provinces, districts and farmers has gone away, and this is really the key.”

The ILO has been monitoring child labor in Uzbekistan since 2013 and forced labor since 2015. It has a network of 17 independent civil society activists, including former political prisoners, who will continue to use tested tools and methodology.

“We have helped inspections grow from 200 to 400 labor inspectors. They are now issuing an annual report with data that is useful for policy and business decisions. They have the mandate to issue fines, investigate violations and submit cases for criminal prosecution,” Astrup said.

Astrup sees the end of the boycott as especially timely as Uzbekistan weathers the impact of sanctions on Russia, a key trading partner.

“We can help Uzbekistan credibly develop its textile and garment industry and give assurance to international brands and retailers that they can start placing orders,” he said.

Astrup added that the ILO and its partners will establish a Better Work Uzbekistan program, focusing on social dialogue mechanisms at factories and cotton-textile clusters, including collective bargaining and bringing employers and workers to the table with government to promote reforms.

Human rights advocates, meanwhile, are calling on the Uzbek government to accelerate reforms and adhere to its international obligations.

Speaking in Tashkent, Bennett Freeman, a Cotton Campaign co-founder and former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, said Uzbekistan’s next challenge is “to open space for civil society and to create the enabling environment essential for responsible sourcing that will attract global brands and protect labor and human rights.”

Hugh Williamson, director of Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division, said Tashkent must lift restrictions on activists and NGOs “to enable them to monitor forced labor and ensure this terrible abuse does not return.”

Tanzila Narbayeva, Uzbekistan’s Senate chair who has led efforts to end forced and child labor, admits the country still faces enormous problems.

“Ensuring human rights and freedom, specifically labor rights, is one of the priorities in our development strategy,” Narbayeva told VOA.

“First, we will strengthen our legal basis, synchronizing our laws with international standards. We will continue reforming agriculture and must also develop our institutions, including a solid monitoring system to base policy on reliable data and research,” she said.

Narbayeva said Tashkent hears international calls for an independent civil society. She said the government is processing registration applications and conducting a discourse with nongovernmental groups.

“We want a pro-active civil society which closely works with relevant international organizations. There will be grants for NGOs, funding for anti-forced labor advocacy and promoting rights in the workplace,” she said.

Source: Voice of America