While the world grappled with that COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un He was reportedly focused on fortifying his country’s borders.
What happened: Pyongyang has undertaken a major construction project to build or upgrade border fences, walls and guard posts. From the analyzed satellite imagery Middlebury Institute for International Studies along with reports from defectors and activists, confirms the scale of these efforts, Reuters reported.
See also: Kim Jong Un is said to have “new urgency” to build a satellite launch pad
The motive behind this fortification appears to be to ensure greater control over the flow of information and goods, to prevent foreign elements from entering the country, and to keep citizens in the country.
“The traditional North Korea-China path is now effectively over unless the situation fundamentally changes,” said a South Korean pastor who has supported North Koreans trying to emigrate.
The vicar and others involved in sensitive border work spoke anonymously or partially anonymously due to security concerns and the need to protect their networks, the report said.
Why it matters: Amid the global pandemic of 2020, Kim’s regime made significant efforts to strengthen its borders China And Russiaeffectively blocking the routes used by smugglers and defectors, the report said.
According to the report, citing official data, the number of defectors who reached South Korea last year was just 67, in stark contrast to the 1,047 in 2019. That drop is not only due to the impact of the pandemic but also to tightening restrictions in China, which would have contributed to a declining trend in defector numbers even before the global health crisis, the report said.
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