NZ NGO Provides PPE Gear To North Korea

The DPRK Red Cross Society has used funding from the NZ DPRK Society to purchase 87 sets of personal protective equipment (PPE) for supply to North Korea’s Quarantine Services.

North Korea was the first country in the world to lockdown. On 20th January flights to and from China were stopped. On that date only 278 confirmed cases of the as yet unnamed coronavirus had been reported in China. Within the next few days, tourism was stopped, all flights and trains cancelled and the borders sealed off. Some 7,000 foreigners and North Koreans returning home were placed in a 30 day quarantine.

North Korea which has a record of accurately monthly reporting of disease cases to the WHO, has not to date reported a single case of Covid-19.

In February the NZ DPRK Society received a request from North Korea for financial help to purchase Covid-19 testing kits and other associated medical supplies.

Through the Donald Borrie Memorial Scholarship Fund US$2,000 was raised and sent to the NZ DPRK Society’s sister society in Pyongyang, the Korea NZ Friendship Society. On advice from the DPRK Red Cross that Quarantine Services were in urgent need of PPE gear, it was agreed that the New Zealand funding be used to meet this need.

Letters of appreciation from the Kim Ho-yong, Secretary General of the DPRK Red Cross Society and Pak Kyong-il, Vice Chairman, DPRK Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries.

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