Scandal – North Korea Quietly Solicits Corona Virus Aid From US, Others

There are reports that Communist North Korea may be dropping its toga of a toughness in the wake of the Corona Virus pandemic.

It is instead dropping its pride and seeking help from western agencies to contain COVID-19, a report from the Financial Times of London has alleged.

The leadership, while denying that it had confirmed infections of COVID-19, was however secretly maneuvering to secure the assistance from other countries including international aid agencies.

Most of such agencies are significantly financed by the United States, the bastion of global democracy or its allies.

Though the report did not name specific sources, it added however that Aid agencies also said North Korea had approached them for help, and that masks and test kits are now slowly making their way across its border with China, Reuters reported.

It adds that Leader Kim Jong Un’s government had been officially reporting zero coronavirus infections and had also shut its border with China..

“Experts with knowledge of North Korea’s healthcare system previously told Business Insider the country is too badly equipped to handle an outbreak like the coronavirus”, the report said, adding that

Officials in the isolated country have privately reached out to their counterparts in other countries asking for urgent help in fighting the outbreak, the Financial Times reported, citing several people familiar with the matter and an unidentified document.

The country has also asked hospitals in South Korea and several international aid agencies for masks and test machines, Reuters reported last Friday, citing two sources with knowledge of the matter.

North Korea has officially reported no cases of the coronavirus , and, in late January, shut its border with China after the outbreak started to spill out of the central Hubei province into other regions near the border.

According to the FT, the country has tested at least 590 citizens all of whom had arrived from outside the country in January but all of them tested negative.

Foreign media and experts doubt the official infection toll, however.

Some South Korean media outlets have reported that North Korea has recorded deaths from the coronavirus , but that the regime is concealing them from the world.

Daily NK , a news site focusing on North Korea, also reported that 180 North Korean soldiers died of the virus in January and February, and that another 3,700 were sent to quarantine.