SEOUL – North Korea has rejected around three million doses of a Chinese-made Covid-19 vaccine, suggesting that they should be given to nations in greater need, said Unicef today.
The impoverished North was the first country to impose a strict lockdown when it sealed its border in January last year to stop the virus spreading from neighbouring China, where it first emerged before sweeping the world.
Pyongyang insists that it has yet to see any cases of the virus – a claim that analysts doubt – but it has paid a huge economic price for the blockade, with the regime admitting in June that it was tackling a “food crisis”.
Regardless, the isolated country told Unicef – which distributes jabs under the Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access (Covax) programme for low-income countries – that the Chinese-made doses can be given to others, said the United Nations agency.
North Korea’s Public Health Ministry “has communicated that the 2.97 million Sinovac doses being offered to DPR Korea by Covax may be relocated to severely affected countries in view of the limited global supply of Covid-19 vaccines and recurrent surge in some countries”, a Unicef spokesman told AFP.
Pyongyang will “continue to communicate” with Covax “to receive Covid-19 vaccines in the coming months”.
In July, a South Korean think tank affiliated with Seoul’s spy agency said Pyongyang has also rejected shipments of the AstraZeneca vaccine offered by Covax, apparently over concerns about side effects.
The Institute for National Security Strategy at the time added that the North was not equipped with sufficient cold-chain storage for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, while being sceptical about the effectiveness of Chinese jabs. – AFP, September 2, 2021
