Array
Communist North Korea invited officials from its closest allies, China and Russia, to attend festivities marking the anniversary of the Korean War armistice agreement scheduled for this Thursday — the first time Pyongyang has invited foreign dignitaries to the country since the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic began.
The Korean War — which split the peninsula and pitted allies China and America against each other — has been technically ongoing since 1950, as neither side signed a peace agreement nor surrendered. The armistice agreement signed in 1953 ended active warfare, creating the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the Koreas and resulting in the effective isolation of communist North Korea from the free world. Despite these facts, the Kim family cult that controls the country celebrates the armistice anniversary as “Victory Day” for the “Fatherland Liberation War” and typically forces citizens to partake in effusive parades and other homages to communist dynastic founder Kim Il-sung and the current dictator, grandson Kim Jong-un.
While the secretive regime is difficult to assess from abroad, expert observers believe that Pyongyang has implemented some of the strictest anti-coronavirus measures in the world. Shortly after the pandemic began in central China in 2020, North Korea shut its typically porous border along the Yalu River with China, reportedly issuing “shoot-to-kill” orders to border patrol soldiers. Cutting off sanctions-violating commerce with China resulted in reports of mass food shortages and starvation.
North Korea claimed not to document a single case of Wuhan coronavirus for years, then abruptly declared “victory” against the virus in August 2022, months after a surge reportedly causing upwards of a million cases. The first major sign of changes in the coronavirus policy of North Korea emerged nearly a year later, in July, when state media published images showing people not wearing sanitary masks for the first time since 2020. Analysts predicted the change in policy was in anticipation of a major event in the capital planned for the 70th anniversary of the armistice agreement, citing satellite evidence of the erection of stages, organization of mass displays, and other moves consistent with the planning of a parade.
The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), Pyongyang’s official state news agency, reported on Monday that the Kim regime had invited a delegation from China to participate in “Victory Day” festivities.
