North Korea’s communist regime is launching a crackdown against companies manufacturing masks without an appropriate license to protect factories in the capital of Pyongyang, Radio Free Asia reported Tuesday.
According to sources who spoke to the U.S.-funded outlet, the regime has launched the crackdown to stop people and businesses from cashing in outside of Pyongyang, where the country’s most important economic activity is centered and where special privileges are reserved for the communist elite.
“More and more factories and trading companies are producing masks in Pyongyang and other cities … to keep up with surging demand,” explained a local official in North Pyongan, in the country’s northwest.
He continued:
There’s a lot of profit in masks right now because authorities are randomly cracking down on residents not wearing masks, regardless of their age or sex. But some of the mask manufacturers have not obtained official licenses.
After finding out that illegal masks produced by unauthorized companies were being sold in large quantities in the market, the authorities mobilized law enforcement to investigate the illegal mask production facilities, punish those involved, and confiscate all masks and manufacturing equipment.
The surge in demand for masks comes as the regime continues to impose typically authoritarian measures on its population in a bid to control the coronavirus, which experts believe has severely affected the poverty-stricken country. These measures include mandatory mask-wearing in public, quarantining entire regions, canceling major cultural and national events, and warning that those venturing close to the Chinese border will be shot.
Another source to speak with the news agency explained how authorities are not just enforcing mask-wearing but also checking the quality of people’s masks to determine if they have been legally produced.
“They place mask inspection teams on every road and alley, so the mask market has expanded,” the source explained. “The stated reason for the crackdown is quality control. They say the unauthorized masks are defective against the coronavirus, but in reality, it is because people are flocking to buy the unlicensed masks because they are of higher quality and cost less than the officially licensed ones.”
Despite imposing stringent measures against the pandemic, officials continue to make the extraordinary claim that the country has not experienced a single coronavirus infection. The secrecy of the regime makes it impossible for outsiders to verify the real number of cases.
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