North Korea has kicked off a rare political event that is expected to happen every five years with about 5,000 people – including leader Kim Jong Un – gathered inside without masks and seated on Tuesday.
Although it is impossible to verify whether the cover was worn at one point, none of the images released by North Korean KCNA news on Wednesday from the Labor Party Congress shows people wearing masks inside.
From a propagandistic point of view, the images make sense: North Korea claims that it has not registered any case of Covid-19, so organizing a summit without masks is a way to strengthen this narrative.
But almost no one believes North Korea has been spared a pandemic that has infected more than 86 million people and killed nearly 2 million. In fact, Kim’s regime recognizes the danger of the virus and has made incredible efforts to stop it from spreading.
Almost all travel in the country stopped shortly after the virus appeared a year ago, and domestic travel is also severely restricted. The North Korean state press regularly carries articles that remind people of the importance of its emergency anti-epidemic campaign. And it appears that the regime allegedly executed two people for not following the Covid-19 guidelines, including a customs official who did not follow the virus’s prevention rules while importing goods from China.
Experts believe that Pyongyang is adopting a vigilant response, as it knows that its degraded medical infrastructure may not contain a major outbreak of Covid-19.
This makes the photos from Tuesday’s meeting all the more puzzling. Perhaps North Korea considers that the protection measures it has implemented have been good enough to allow participants not to wear masks at the meeting. This is a unique event that North Korea does not want to postpone – it is only the eighth party congress in North Korea’s history and the second in Kim’s term. The last outfit before Kim took power was in 1980.
But maintaining it is a risk. If only one of the 5,000 people who traveled across the country to attend the meeting had Covid-19 and was infectious, then Kim should have started an incredibly important political meeting with a super-widespread event.