North Korea has an "explosive" COVID outbreak and 0% vaccination rate – Axios

North Korea officially claimed zero COVID-19 cases until last Thursday. Now, Pyongyang says 1.2 million people have feverish, COVID-like symptoms, 50 people have died and the entire country is under lockdown.

Why it matters: North Korea has a 0% vaccination rate and meager health facilities, and it was already struggling to feed its population. Leader Kim Jong-un has called the outbreak the "greatest turmoil" since North Korea's founding, but he has yet to accept foreign assistance.

Driving the news: At an emergency Politburo meeting on Sunday, Kim scolded officials for the irresponsible execution of the quarantine policy and blamed them for shortages of medicines, according to state media. He has started wearing a mask in public.

Between the lines: "I think theres probably an effort here to get on top of the narrative and to show Kim is addressing this head-on, while also pushing blame down the chain to the lower levels," says Jenny Town, director of the Stimson Centers 38 North program.

How it happened: North Korea responded to the pandemic as it did to Ebola, MERS and SARS: "They sealed their borders and waited for the pandemic to die off," says Kee Park, a neurosurgeon and lecturer at Harvard Medical School.

Now that the Omicron variant has "breached their defenses" and spread throughout much of the country, North Korea is ill-equipped to deal with it, Park says.

"I shudder to think about a prolonged lockdown in North Korea, the human cost of that. The country's already food insecure. And what it means is we have to give them assistance immediately," says Park.

Yes, but: Accepting international aid is always politically sensitive for North Korea, and officials could worry letting in people and supplies will also bring more cases, the Stimson Centers Town says.

But the very public pronouncements about the severity of the situation could be a step toward accepting aid, the humanitarian source says, adding that the UN will likely be the key player in any such effort.

What to watch: If North Korea does accept help from South Korea and the U.S., even indirectly through the UN, it would be interesting to see if this humanitarian effort would open up space for diplomacy on the nuclear issue, Cha adds.

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North Korea has an "explosive" COVID outbreak and 0% vaccination rate - Axios