Mysterious Flu-Like Illness Is Spreading Across North Korea; Outbreak Affecting Military Workers

A mysterious "fever" is spreading across the secluded country of North Korea, according to a report.

Unnamed North Korean residents told Radio Free Asia that the country's "stormtroopers," or soldiers engaged in construction work, were hit hard by the mysterious flu-like disease, with at least one of them having died due to it.

A resident of North Korea's northern province of Ryanggang, who spoke to RFA on the condition of anonymity for security reasons, said the illness spread easily among the stormtroopers since they are known to work and live together in dormitories near construction sites.

"Yesterday morning, near Hyesan Station, a 35-year-old stormtrooper was found dead," the anonymous North Korean resident said.

"The young man had been mobilized for road construction in Samjiyon county. He had pneumonia and was hospitalized, but they drove him from the hospital when his symptoms did not improve. He died on the road near Hyesan Station on his way home," he added.

The unknown illness has also appeared in Pyongyang, a resident of the northwestern province of North Pyongan told the outlet.

The source said his acquaintance's son, who serves as a stormtrooper in North Korea's capital, told his parents that "a fever was circulating there."

Another North Pyongan resident told RFA that the disease began to spread in Pyongyang as soldiers transferred in from the provinces to work on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's ambitious residential housing project.

"Recently the stormtroopers who are mobilized to build houses in Pyongyang have been in need of medicines and medical expenses," the resident said.

However, North Korean residents have only received temporary first aid, such as antipyretics and cold medicines, to treat their illnesses.

A resident claimed to the outlet that drugs used to treat COVID-19 symptoms are being sold at high prices in pharmacies and markets in downtown Sinuiju, a northeastern North Korean city that serves as a gateway to China.

They claimed that the prices for antibiotics, cough suppressants, general cold medicines and paracetamol have risen by 20% to 50% this month.

North Korean authorities appeared to have set up a temporary hospital ward in Pyongyang to treat soldiers suffering from the unknown illness and have already deployed a police force to enforce quarantine rules.

Aside from Pyongyang, other North Korean provinces have started setting up isolation wards to treat residents suffering from the mysterious disease.

With North Korea's restrictive policies and lack of transparency about its health issues, experts warned it is impossible to determine if COVID-19 caused the outbreak.

Ahn Kyungsoo, the head of DPRK Health, a South Korea-based website that monitors health issues in the socialist state, said he thinks the flu was the more likely cause of the outbreak.

However, Ahn didn't rule out the possibility of a coronavirus outbreak in North Korea.

Greg Scarlatoiu, the executive director at the Washington-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, told RFA that he suspects the recent resurgence of COVID-19 in China could be behind the mysterious disease spreading in North Korea.

Scarlatoiu pointed out that North Korea shares a border with China. While exchanges between the two countries "are at a level lower than before COVID," he warned there is a danger of contamination and a possibility that the coronavirus may also wreak havoc in the secluded country.