While North Korea is reporting hundreds of thousands of "fever cases” a day, several international aid organizations say they’ve not heard from Pyongyang seeking help to combat COVID-19, one of the country’s worst crises in years.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has declared a state of emergency and mobilized troops to head off the spread of what the state calls a "malicious” epidemic, but there have been no signs his regime has or will reach out to the outside world for aid, according to six international organizations that have in the past provided humanitarian and medical assistance.
Pyongyang, however, appears to have sent airplanes to China, its biggest benefactor, in the past few days to pick up medical supplies, NK News and Yonhap News Agency reported, but there are no signs United Nations agencies that have been in the country for decades, such as the World Health Organization and World Food Program, are about to resume operations.