SEOUL — The coronavirus pandemic has finally penetrated North Korea, an impoverished country with a fragile health-care system and no vaccine program.
If the figures are accurate, the country appears to be experiencing the beginnings of the disaster that the rest of the world faced in early 2020: a national health crisis that will quickly overwhelm a health-care system already under duress, with the most vulnerable people at greatest risk of death. North Korea is one of two countries in the world that has no coronavirus vaccines after twice refusing shipments from Covax, the U.N.-backed initiative providing doses to countries that need them.
