North Korea Reveals 'Major Incident' Related to COVID-19... Possible Purge of Officials Including Jo Yong-won

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] It appears that a serious incident related to COVID-19 has occurred in North Korea. Until now, the COVID-19 situation in North Korea has not been properly disclosed. Although the specific details of the "serious incident" directly mentioned by Kim Jong-un, General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, have not been revealed, follow-up measures such as a reshuffle of officials due to quarantine failures are also expected.

On the 30th, the Korean Central News Agency reported, "The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party convened an expanded meeting on the 29th at the Central Committee headquarters to strictly address the dereliction of duty by some responsible officials and to establish a new turning point for the Party-wide revolution of cadres."

The agency added, "It pointed out that responsible officials in charge of national major affairs caused a serious incident by neglecting the Party's important decisions in executing the prolonged national emergency epidemic prevention campaign in response to the global health crisis, thereby creating a great crisis for the safety of the state and the people."

However, the agency did not separately report the details of the serious incident. Contextually, a large-scale outbreak of COVID-19 cases can be considered a possibility. North Korea has conducted COVID-19 tests on over 33,000 people so far but has reported no confirmed cases to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Experts analyze that the criticism likely points to shortcomings of officials in implementing policies in preparation for prolonged epidemic prevention. Professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies said, "There is a possibility of confirmed cases, but other aspects may also be involved," adding, "It could be pointing out violations of self-reliance and emergency epidemic prevention systems, such as food shortages or inadequate preparation for floods and typhoons."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

In particular, considering that bureaucratism and self-preservation among officials were heavily criticized at this meeting, it seems to have an 'internal discipline' character. The meeting discussed the issue of "non-Party behavior of Party and state officials," and detailed reports were given on dereliction of duty by some responsible officials. Criticism was also raised regarding officials' self-preservation, passivity, factionalism (giving up halfway), and outdated thinking. General Secretary Kim emphasized, "Now is the time to launch a cadre revolution before solving the sharply emerging economic problems."

This meeting also raises the possibility of a major reshuffle of officials. The agency stated that during the meeting, members of the Political Bureau Standing Committee, Political Bureau members, and candidate members were summoned and re-elected, and secretaries of the Central Committee were also summoned and elected, but did not disclose specific personnel details. Amid speculation about the possible dismissal of Jo Yong-won, the Party Organization Secretary who has recently been absent from propaganda media, there are also opinions predicting the return and promotion of Party Vice Directors Kim Yo-jong and Hyon Song-wol as candidate members. Although the two were excluded from the list of candidate members of the Political Bureau at the 8th Party Congress, they have demonstrated their standing through successive statements directed at the United States.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.