CNN: He will starve his own people; Why is he silent? Something happened though

CNN: He will starve his own people; Why is he silent? Something happened though

He allegedly ordered the execution of a customs officer who improperly handled imported goods, CNN reports, as Jutarnji list informs.

According to the data of the Chinese customs administration, goods worth only 253.000 US dollars were exported to North Korea in October, which is a drop of as much as 99 percent compared to September.

By the way, China is North Korea's biggest trading partner and is actually a kind of economic rescue for the Kim Jong Un regime, because North Korea hardly imports anything from other countries.

According to new information, Kim Jong Un is also ready to stop trade with China in order to prevent the virus from entering North Korea, even if that means a risk for supplying its own population with food and fuel. This move seems even more extreme, considering that mainland China reports only a few cases of COVID-19 infection every day. Kim Jong Un allegedly ordered the execution of two people for offenses related to COVID-19, including a customs officer who did not follow the rules to prevent the spread of the virus while importing goods from China, South Korean authorities revealed after being informed by a spy agency.

CNN states, however, that they failed to confirm the news.

North Korean authorities have recently implemented new, even sharper anti-epidemic measures across the country, including increasing the number of guard posts at border crossings as well as tightening controls on entry into territorial waters in coastal areas. Authorities were even ordered to "burn all marine litter". Experts believe that Kim Jong Un has further tightened the measures because he is very aware of the problems that his country would have with curbing the pandemic that has already flooded some of the world's best health systems.

The devastated health infrastructure of North Korea probably would not be able to cope with the treatment of a large number of COVID patients, because there are already major problems with the treatment of other infectious diseases such as tuberculosis.

People who fled North Korea say that the hospitals there are dilapidated and that they lack the appropriate equipment and medicines. Amputations are reportedly performed without anesthesia, and doctors sell drugs to buy food and survive.

Pyongyang has not publicly acknowledged a single case of COVID-19 within its borders, but Evans Revere, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific, believes the situation in North Korea is serious because the pandemic there has worsened significantly.

"The new mass lock tells me that something significant has happened. And that doesn't bode well, not only for the North Korean economy but also for the ability of many people to make ends meet in that country on a daily basis. This is a pretty serious situation for the North Korean leader."

It may also explain the relative silence we have seen from North Korea since the US presidential election ended. They are currently focused on themselves and trying to figure out how to survive the next few months", Revere said.