As world reopens, North Korea is one of two countries without vaccines
SEOUL - As mask mandates and social distancing requirements lift around the world, North Korea remains one of two countries that have not administered any coronavirus vaccines, with no sign of how it can ever begin to reopen despite a brewing humanitarian crisis for its people.
The vaccines that were allocated for North Korea through a United Nations-backed global vaccination effort are no longer available, officials said this month, after Pyongyang repeatedly rejected the initiative's offers of millions of doses.
North Korea, already one of the most closed societies in the world, remains in a strict pandemic lockdown and has shuttered its borders except to a minimal level of trade with China, with grave implications for the health and food security of its population.
The pandemic closure has exacerbated the food crisis, said Tomás Ojea Quintana, the United Nations' special rapporteur on North Korean human rights. In a recent report, Quintana said the country's "covid restrictions, including border closures, appear to have prevented an outbreak inside the country, though likely at considerable cost to the wider health situation and further exacerbating economic deprivation."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/world-reopens-north-korea-one-121420570.html
But it costs a lot to feed Dear Leader.