Legal Aspects of State Policy on Preventing and Overcoming COVID-19 in North Korea: Implementation and Effectiveness of Legal Measures

Abstract

This article analyses some (publicly available) legal aspects of COVID-19 policy in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea since the beginning of the global coronavirus outbreak and in the following years. The focus is on the legal measures implemented to prevent the spread of the virus. The paper draws conclusions about the effectiveness of the practical application of the «zero tolerance» policy in the fight against the pandemic. Pyongyang explains its success in countering the coronavirus as a proactive response to the struggle for «national survival». The country has closed its border, reduced trade with China, established a 30-day quarantine period, and imposed restrictions on the activities of foreign diplomatic and international personnel based in North Korea (essentially choosing a position of even greater isolation from the outside world in the fight against the pandemic). Having officially recognized the first case of coronavirus infection in the country only in May 2022, 3 months later, in August of the same year, North Korea declared a complete victory over COVID-19. However, the real situation with COVID-19 in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is not obvious: in contrast to the many unreliable statements and propaganda news reports, there are studies by external experts, as well as UN reports, which seem to reflect a more realistic situation behind the Iron Curtain. Such conclusions can also be drawn from the fact that no COVID-19 vaccination campaigns have been officially conducted, and food insecurity caused by various factors, including prolonged sanctions, border closures and adverse climatic conditions, may also have hindered the ability of the population to overcome COVID-19 as successfully as claimed by the DPRK. In this article, we will try to analyze in more details the methods of countering the coronavirus in North Korea based on available official sources and assess their effectiveness, as well as their impact on the civil liberties of the DPRK population.