SEOUL: North Korea has rejected about three million doses of Covid-19 vaccines developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac Biotech Ltd., indicating that they should be shipped to the most affected countries.
The shootings were offered in recent weeks through the Covax initiative, a program funded primarily by Western governments to help lower-income countries get vaccines.
North Korea’s public health ministry rejected the shipment, citing the limited global supply of vaccines against Covid-19 and the continued rise of viruses elsewhere, according to a Unicef spokeswoman who helps make shots on behalf of Covax. North Korea called for the vaccines to be “moved to severely affected countries,” the spokeswoman said.
The Kim Jong Un regime has reported zero confirmed cases of Covid-19 to the World Health Organization. Its borders remain sealed and state media have called for constant surveillance in the country’s anti-epidemic campaign. Kim has considered that preventing virus outbreaks is a matter of national survival.
The impoverished country, which has no funds to acquire the vaccines, has applied for help through Covax, although it has not yet received any dose. A planned shipment from Covax for this year of about two million vaccines against AstraZeneca’s PLC has faced delays.