SZ Podcast “The Topic”:North Korea: between the corona crisis and missile tests
Kim Jong-un wants to show military strength, at the same time the number of people infected with corona in his country is exploding. Why the situation threatens to escalate.
By Thomas Hahn and Laura Terberl
North Korea sealed itself off massively in 2020 to prevent the spread of the corona virus in the country. But now in May the government had to announce that there are currently millions of people infected. Experts fear a humanitarian crisis: Health care in the country is poor, the population has not been vaccinated and, in addition, many residents of the country are malnourished – also because the isolation has long stopped aid supplies from entering the country.
At the same time, Kim Jong-un is trying to demonstrate military strength: Missile tests have been avoided for years, but have been carried out regularly again since the beginning of the year. Thomas Hahn is the SZ correspondent for Japan and South Korea. In this episode of “The Topic” he explains why the conflict is threatening to escalate again and how dangerous North Korea is at the moment.