North Korea Shows Maskless Faces in State Media, a Pandemic Milestone

Analysts and South Korean journalists noted this week that North Korea’s state television and its state newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, began publishing photos of official events featuring maskless communist officials, a sign the years-old sanitary mask mandate imposed to prevent the spread of Wuhan coronavirus may be ending.

Rodong Sinmun reportedly began showing faces on Monday, the website NK News, the Korea Herald, and the Korea JoongAng Daily all reported. NK News noted that satellite evidence suggests Pyongyang is planning a major military parade for July 27, the anniversary of the Korean War armistice agreement, and may be easing mask restrictions in anticipation of the mass event. North Korea marks the armistice anniversary as “Victory Day,” despite the fact that the Korean War never technically ended, so no one has technically won it since it began in 1950.

North Korea imposed brutal lockdowns on its population in 2020 in response to the eruption of a novel coronavirus pandemic in neighboring China. Where the communist regime had previously allowed significant foot traffic, on the porous Yalu River border between China and North Korea, Pyongyang reportedly imposed “shoot to kill” orders for anyone crossing. The lockdowns triggered mass shortages of food and other critical supplies that Chinese smugglers typically provided, many items violating international sanctions.

The communist regime of dictator Kim Jong-un was one of the last countries on earth to document official cases of Wuhan coronavirus, spending two years denying that a single case of infection had occurred within its borders. Pyongyang suddenly claimed to identify its first case in May 2022, then claimed to document over 1 million cases between late April and May, and imposed even more rigorous lockdowns in response.

By August 2022, North Korea declared official “victory” against the Wuhan coronavirus but has maintained a mask mandate through this week.

North Korean officials have not confirmed the elimination of the sanitary mask mandate, but state media organs have consistently published photos this week of maskless officials.

“A series of photos released by North Korean state media Tuesday showed ordinary people and officials at various events seated close together without face coverings, prompting experts to say Pyongyang may have finally lifted mask mandates starting this month,” JoongAng Daily reported. “A photo released by the North’s official Rodong Sinmum on Tuesday of a publishing management bureau in North Hamgyong Province showed all eight officials masks-free.”

NK News noted that “ordinary people nationwide” also appeared in television footage and newspaper photos without masks starting on Sunday. The Korea Herald reported that some of the photos in Rodong Sinmun showed maskless people indoors – at a corn starch factory, suggesting the mandate may no longer apply even in sensitive food production areas.

More dramatic images surfaced on the state television network, showing a state-orchestrated youth theater outing “with hundreds of young people seated close to one another” maskless, the newspaper noted.

JoongAng Daily noted that officials appeared in state media wearing masks as recently as last Friday. It reported that some health experts believe that dropping the mask mandate could also be a protective health measure “to prevent the spread of skin or eye diseases caused by wearing face coverings in the summer heat.”

The mask mandate did not prevent North Korea from holding its signature mass events to celebrate the Kim dynasty and the communist regime. Last month, Pyongyang hosted an event it claimed brought together 120,000 people in a tightly packed stadium to mark the anniversary of the beginning of the Korean War. The event was meant both as a condemnation of the United States, presented as the sole aggressor in the war despite it beginning with North Korea attacking the South, and a celebration of North Korea’s illegal nuclear weapons program. Rodong Sinmun described the rally as recognition that North Korea had overcome “bitter pain and misfortune due to the U.S. imperialists’ war provocation of aggression.”

In North Korea, government parades and rallies are mandatory – not attending, or attending with insufficient enthusiasm, could result in a person being imprisoned in a labor camp for disloyalty.

The alleged 120,000 people at the rally appeared to all wear masks in photos of the event.

NEW: Over 100,000 North Koreans were organized into mass anti-America rallies across the nation, filling Pyongyang’s May Day stadium with posters, chants and other propaganda celebrating the "Day of Struggle Against U.S. Imperialism," a Korean War holiday in the country pic.twitter.com/h0NNXFi5yU

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) June 25, 2023

The “Victory Day” parade on July 27, NK News predicted using satellite images of preparatory work, will be a similar “large-scale” event in Pyongyang featuring military flyovers and, potentially, a major concert.

“Infrastructure preparations at the parade venue itself, central Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Square, appeared to start far earlier than usual this year, Planet Labs imagery suggests,” the outlet reported on Wednesday. “Organizers began to set up a large installation, possibly a stage for popular musicians to perform as missiles roll by, as well as a likely orchestra tent in the middle of the main square between June 12 and 16. They finished the work by July 1 — around four weeks before the projected event date.”

NK News noted that a “Victory Day” parade of the scale the regime is apparently preparing for has not taken place in Pyongyang in a decade.

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