China ‘gives North Korea’s Kim Jong-un and family experimental Covid vaccine’

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, his family and several top-ranking officials in his administration have been provided with an experimental coronavirus vaccine by China, an analyst has claimed.

“Kim Jong-un and multiple other high-ranking officials within the Kim family and leadership network have been vaccinated for coronavirus within the last two to three weeks thanks to a vaccine candidate supplied by the Chinese government,” said Harry Kazianis, a North Korea expert who works at the Washington-based think tank Center for the National Interest.

He revealed the information in an article on news outlet 19FortyFive, citing two unidentified Japanese intelligence sources.

But the intelligence sources did not reveal the name of the company whose experimental vaccine was administered to the North Korean leader and his officials.

Mr Kazianis quoted scientist Dr Peter J Hotez of the Baylor College of Medicine who noted that there are “at least 3-4 different Chinese vaccines in play” including those by Sinovac Biotech Ltd, CanSinoBio and China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm).

However, none of the three firms has shared results of the phase-III of their clinical trials.

Experts, however, doubt that the North Korean leader would use an experimental vaccine.

Choi Jung-hun, an infectious disease expert who defected from North Korea to the South in 2012, said “even if a Chinese vaccine had already been approved, no drug is perfect and he would not take that risk when he has numerous shelters which can ensure almost complete isolation”, reported Reuters.

While East Asia analyst Mark Barry of the International Journal on World Peace said Kim would prefer proven European vaccines to the ones supplied by Beijing.

“These Japanese sources may not realise that Kim would be loath to be provided any vital medical care by China. He would prefer a European vaccine as well as European pharmaceuticals. The risk is too great. But he's happy to get Chinese PPE (personal protective equipment),” tweeted Mr Barry.

Until now, North Korea has not confirmed any cases of coronavirus infections even as South Korea has recorded over 34,000 cases, including 500 deaths due to the pandemic.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) has said that an outbreak of Covid-19 in North Korea cannot be ruled out as the latter had trade and people-to-people exchanges with China before it closed the borders in late January.

Microsoft had said that two North Korean hacking groups tried to break into the network of vaccine developers in multiple countries including British drugmaker AstraZeneca. The NIS recently said that it foiled North Korea's attempts to hack into South Korean COVID-19 vaccine makers.

Additional reporting by agencies

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