The Supreme Leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-Un, has bashed his country's response to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis as the virus sweeps through the hermit kingdom rapidly.
What Happened: Kim at a politburo meeting on Tuesday accused government officials of showing "immaturity" and slackness in their COVID-19 response, North Korea's state media reported, as infections inched closer to the 2 million mark.
A total of 62 people have died, with around six deaths in the past 24-hours, as per the official numbers reported by the state media.
See Also: North Korea's Kim Jong-Un Deploys Army To Battle COVID-19
Kim reportedly said the state, as a result, was grappling with increased "complexity and hardships" in fighting the pandemic.
According to KCNA, around 3,000 members of the Korean People's Army's medical units were deployed for delivering medicines to pharmacies, and more than 1.4 million officials, teachers, and students in public health sectors were helping identify people with symptoms.
Despite this, North Korean media claimed the country's virus situation was taking a "favorable turn," and the party meeting discussed "maintaining a good chance in the overall epidemic prevention front."
Why It Matters: Experts believe that country, which claims to have kept COVID-19 at bay for the last two years, is reporting a fraction of cases due to its limited testing capabilities. At the current rate, the failure to control the virus could have dire consequences on the isolated nation, considering its broken health care system and unimmunized 26 million population.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a briefing on Tuesday, said that the agency offered to send vaccines, medicines, tests, and technical support to North Korea, but it has not responded yet.
North Korea and Eritrea are the only sovereign U.N.-member countries with no COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
