Who knows what is true in this report, but I think everyone finds it hard to believe that North Korea has no coronavirus cases:

Hundreds of North Korean soldiers have reportedly died from the coronavirus — and thousands of others are being quarantined.

But the secretive nation’s leaders are sticking to the official narrative that the global epidemic has not reached them.

According to Daily NK, a South Korean news organization, the COVID-19 virus killed 180 North Korean soldiers in January and February and has sent another 3,700 into quarantine. And according to South Korea’s government-backed Yonhap News Agency, almost 10,000 people have been quarantined over coronavirus fears, but nearly 4,000 have been released since they didn’t present symptoms.

But the North Korean government line hasn’t changed. The cloistered nation has remained stubbornly resistant to providing transparent information about the reported outbreak in the country.

Business Insider

You can read more at the link.

South Korea has had far more coronavirus infections than Japan and here is how one professor writing in the Korea Times explains it:

It’s been over two months since the outbreak of the Coronavirus, or COVID-19. As of March 9th, Japan has 1,198 confirmed patients (705 of which are aboard the Diamond Princess cruise ship) with 14 deaths, while South Korea has 7,313 patients with 50 deaths. 

Why is there this huge difference in both patient numbers and deaths?  (….)

Largely missing from Japanese society are the incompetent hospitals, the gigantic protestant churches (280,000 followers), and the immense army bases (240,000 personnel) as super spreaders. Japanese hospitals do not have lenient visitation practices, making them free of mass infections. Given the small size in each church, no coronavirus outbreak has been reported among church goers. According to the Defense Department report of Feb. 25th, the military has also strictly cancelled all activities that involve inviting outsiders to maintain its full quarantine status.

Finally, the third difference is the large outbreak among women in their 20s in South Korea. This augurs the failure of South Korean society to fight mental depression among young women. The country has the world’s highest female suicide rate as of 2016 (14.1 suicides per 100,000 people). This is far higher than the third ranked Japan with 8 suicides per 100,000 people. Why so many women decide to take their own lives in South Korea is a complicated sociological issue. What is clear is that these women have no social support system other than the church.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but 63% of coronavirus patients in South Korea are women with many of them linked back to the Shincheonji church.

The call center cluster infection in Seoul has caused an increase in the rate of detected daily infections in South Korea:

 South Korea reported an uptick in new daily coronavirus cases Wednesday, reversing five straight days of fewer new cases, as the country grapples with clusters of infections in Seoul and neighboring areas.

The 242 new cases, which were detected Tuesday, brought the nation’s total number of infections to 7,755, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC).

Still, Tuesday’s additional cases were far below the daily increases of 500 or more last week but higher than the 131 new cases detected Monday. 

So far, 60 people, mostly elderly patients with underlying illnesses, have died in South Korea from the respiratory virus that emerged in China late last year, the KCDC said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on how the coronavirus spread has effected the ROK military:

One Air Force officer stationed in the southeastern city of Daegu tested positive for the new coronavirus, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the military to 37 on Tuesday, the defense ministry said.

Of the total, 20 were in the Army, 13 in the Air Force, two in the Marine Corps and one each in the Navy and a unit under the direct control of the ministry, according to the defense ministry.

Thirty-two patients are active-duty service members and the remaining five are civilians working for the military, it added.

As a preventive step, around 2,560 service members are quarantined at their bases. Of them, around 280 have either shown symptoms or had direct contact with infected patients, while the remainder recently visited Daegu, North Gyeongsang Province or other virus-hit foreign nations, including China.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

There has been outbreak of the coronavirus in Seoul from a call center:

 With at least 50 cases, a call center in southwestern Seoul emerged as the biggest COVID-19 infection cluster here Tuesday, triggering concerns over potential mass transmission in the metropolitan area that is home to 25 million, or nearly half of the country’s population.

A high-rise in the neighborhood of Sindorim was closed and disinfected late Monday after workers at a call center on its 11th floor were confirmed as patients, according to Guro Ward, which oversees Sindorim.

In a meeting with other provincial officials, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said 64 cases occurred from the outbreak, while the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) earlier said 50 cases have been traced to the call center.

A total of 46 employees who live in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province have tested positive, in addition to four family members of them. The KCDC said all diagnosed employees worked on the 11th floor, without wearing masks.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Another Korean employee from Camp Walker in Daegu has tested positive for the coronavirus:

A South Korean woman who works for the U.S. military in Daegu tested positive for the new coronavirus, raising the military’s total to nine, the command said Tuesday, as the overall number of cases in South Korea showed signs of slowing.

U.S. Forces Korea said the woman, who worked at Camp Walker, has isolated herself at her off-base residence in the southeastern city, which is at the center of the outbreak that has led to more than 7,500 infections nationwide, with 54 deaths.

South Korean and U.S. military health professionals “are actively conducting contact tracing to determine whether anyone else may have been exposed,” USFK said in a press release, adding the military remains at a “high” risk level across the divided peninsula.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but now nine people related to USFK have tested positive for the coronavirus, but only one of them has been a USFK soldier.