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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presides over an expanded meeting of the politburo of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee on Feb. 28. (Yonhap News)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered special national anti-epidemic measures to contain transmission of the global spread of COVID-19, the disease resulting from the novel coronavirus. While Kim’s activities had not been disclosed previously during the coronavirus outbreak, images of him instructing Korean People’s Army (KPA) “joint strike” exercises were also made public.

According to a Feb. 29 report by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Kim presided over an expanded meeting of the politburo of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) Central Committee for in-depth discussions that included the adoption of special disease control measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Quoted as saying that “if the infectious disease [COVID-19] spreading beyond control finds its way into the country, it will entail serious consequences,” Kim called on the relevant agencies, including the Supreme People’s Assembly Presidium and Cabinet, to “strengthen the country’s anti-epidemic force.”

Kim also ordered more thorough implementation of a previous closure of national borders and check-up, screening, and quarantine measures, stressing the “need to enforce strict discipline whereby all the fields and units of the country unconditionally obey the command and control of the central headquarters related to the emergency anti-epidemic work and thoroughly carry out instructions of it.”

Although North Korea has claimed not to have any diagnosed COVID-19 infections, the personal orders from Kim Jong-un indicate that it is taking the situation very seriously.

In addition to the COVID-19 issue, the expanded politburo meeting that day also included a message of focused criticism regarding “practices of prerogative, bureaucratism, corruption and irregularities” by “senior officials of the Party Central Committee and officials of a Party cadre training institution.”

“Extremely bureaucratized phenomena and misconduct that bear no relation to the revolutionary project attitude and style consistently emphasized by the Party have been recently observed among some Party Central Committee officials, and extreme cases of corruption have occurred in a Party official training base that serves an important role in fostering our Party’s framework,” the report said.

“[Kim] called on all the Party officials and organizations to draw a serious lesson from the recent incident, to make steady efforts to revolutionarize themselves and their units and bring about a new turn in the Party work,” it added.

The criticisms at the expanded politburo meeting are believed to have been directed at the Kim Il-sung Higher Party School, a re-education organization for WPK officials that is considered North Korea’s pre-eminent party official training institution.

As punishment in connection with the issue, WPK Organization and Guidance Department Director Ri Man-gon, a politburo member and WPK chairman, was removed from his position, as was Minister of Agriculture Pak Thae-dok.

Meanwhile, KCNA reported on Feb. 29 that Kim had personally visited the scene of a “joint strike” drill by KPA units on Feb. 28 to provide instruction on the exercises. The agency described the visit as being “aimed to assess the mobility and fire strike ability of defence units on the front and in the eastern area and help them get proficiency in the command of combined strike by the services of the KPA,” adding that the participants in the drill included forces from defense units on the front and in the Eastern region, as well as navy, aviation, and anti-aircraft forces.

It was the first report on Kim’s activities in the 13 days since North Korean media reported on Feb. 16 that he had visited Kumsusan Palace of the Sun in Pyongyang for the 78th anniversary of the birth of his father Kim Jong-il, which is celebrated in North Korea on Feb. 16 as the “Day of the Shining Star.”

By Park Min-hee, staff reporter

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