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Pyongyang Unprepared for Outbreak Like Coronavirus, Says North Korean Doctor
Who Defected

Kim Young-kweon

   WASHINGTON - North Korea's medical system for coping with contagious
   diseases like the coronavirus is prioritized to protect the elites of
   the regime in Pyongyang and is unequipped to treat its local citizens,
   said a former North Korean medical doctor.

   Choi Jung-hoon, a North Korean defector who is now a research professor
   at Korea University's Public Policy Research Institute in Seoul, said
   North Korea is making "a big fuss" about the virus because its medical
   care system is unfit to take necessary measures to contain it.

   Choi said instructions for taking sanitary and quarantine measures from
   North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are handed down to local leaders. But,
   he said, there are problems implementing them at the provincial level
   because rudimentary medical facilities are ill-equipped and the medical
   infrastructure is focused on Pyongyang.

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