News Digest

Lockdown: North Korea orders Ebola quarantine on all foreigners

North Korea will quarantine foreigners entering the country for 21 days over fears of the spread of Ebola, even though no cases of the disease have been reported anywhere in Asia. Foreigners from affected areas will be quarantined at one set of locations, while those from unaffected areas will be sent to other locations, including hotels. The staff of diplomatic missions and international organizations will be allowed to stay in their residences. Tourist visits to North Korea were halted last week and it is unclear if those already there on shorter stays have to remain for the quarantine period. North Korea’s frantic response to the outbreak is surprising because it admits so few foreigners at all. Other than diplomatic and government missions, it has virtually no contact with any of the countries that have been most affected in west Africa.

Our army, which protects our borders, has a high responsibility to block the disease.

Han Yong Sik, director of the Nampo inspection center, told the network

North Korea is always on guard against outside influences, but now that it perceives the deadly disease to be a threat, its anxiety has reached a new level. It has banned tourists, put business groups on hold and is looking even more suspiciously than usual at every foreign face coming across its borders. So far, there has been no official statement in North Korea’s English-language media outlining the tourism ban or other restrictions on travel. There was, and remains, little information about what groups are affected, whether travel out of North Korea will be stopped and under what conditions the restrictions would be lifted. That, of course, has left potential travelers scratching their heads – and businesses bleeding money.

North Korea’s ‘fear of the foreign’ outweighs their interest in whatever benefits foreign investment brings.

Choson Exchange, a Singapore-based organization that promotes business and educational exchange with North Korea