North Korea: Covid-19 Still Used to Justify Repression

Even before the covid-19 pandemic North

Korea was one of the most isolated

countries in the world but more recently

its totalitarian leader Kim Jung has

almost entirely cut off the country from

the rest of the world since 2020 the

government has used the pandemic as an

excuse to tightly seal its northern

border and essentially lock down the

country at the border with China

authorities have vastly increased and

expanded fencing and guard posts added

security personnel and ramped up

enforcement and strict punishments

including shoot on site orders and

threats of public executions the

Crackdown combined with negative

consequences of tight trade sanctions by

the UN Security Council has effectively

closed off the country and sharply

limited the import of food and essential

Goods it's now harder than ever for

North Koreans to communicate with the

outside world conduct trade make a

living and access food and other

necessities it's also nearly impossible

to escape the country often described as

a giant prison the UN security Council

should re-engage on North Korea and

press the government to relax its over

Brad restrictions and commit to

addressing human rights

violations