18 The Sunday Times May 22, 2022
WORLD NEWS
limitations as a leader,” said Soo Kim, a
former CIA analyst now with the Rand
Corporation think tank. “Rather than
taking responsibility for the oversight —
which is an understatement, given the
opportunities Kim has had to address the
pandemic for more than two years — he
chooses to fault his officials.”
The infection numbers only hint at the
potential scale of the disaster in a country
where years of food shortages have left
about 11 million people malnourished,
according to UN calculations.
The hospital system is dilapidated and
lacks vital supplies, such as oxygen, IV
kits, ventilators, PPE for health workers
and anti-viral medicines for the infected.
Last week state media was promoting
supposed fever “remedies” such as gar-
gling salt water and drinking tea made
from willow and honeysuckle leaves.
Most significantly, the regime has not
vaccinated the population against Covid.
Instead, the already secretive state closed
itself to the world in early 2020, relying
on sealed borders to keep out the virus
while turning down offers of foreign jabs.
The resulting damage to the economy,
on top of existing sanctions, forced
Pyongyang to ease some restrictions at
the Chinese border in recent months.
Freight trains again crossed the bridge
and small trading delegations were
authorised. And that was apparently the
only opening the Omicron strain needed.
North Korea has so far confirmed onlya fraction of the “fever” cases as the coro-
navirus and already cited “good results”
in its response, but there are indications
that it was still trying to cover up the out-
break even as the disease spread. Defec-
tors in Seoul said the northern city of Sin-
uiju, located across the Yalu river from
China’s Dandong, was put in lockdown
early this month due to a stream of sus-
pected cases.
Last week Pyongyang dispatched
three cargo planes to China — the first
flights out of the country for two years —
to collect medical supplies.
The crisis has raised questions about
whether Kim’s grip on power could be
weakened. An out-of-control virus is a
“nightmare scenario” for the regime,
said Victor Cha, a former US national
security adviser on East Asia.
But as head of a country with no outlet
for public debate, never mind dissent,
Kim could emerge strengthened, armed
with an excuse to tighten his grip and
launch fresh purges. “The pandemic may
put greater pressure on his leadership
[but it] will not work in the way that we
would expect,” said Soo Kim. “So rather
than seeing Kim take steps to fix the prob-
lem we may instead see greater repres-
sion to ensure that the country remains
under his firm control.”
The ruthless dynasty — a hereditary
communist dictatorship founded in 1948
by Kim Il-sung, the current leader’s
grandfather — has long appearedThe Korean
People’s Army
medical corps
on parade in
Pyongyang.
Below left, Kim
at an anti-virus
strategy meeting.
Bottom left,
testing startsThe 6ft 9in tattooed leftwinger giving a big boost to America’s struggling Democrats
They
doused
his body
in oil
and set
it alightdeemed too extravagant by
the party’s most conservative
senator, Joe Manchin. The left
of the party has also taken
heavy fire from conservatives
in the culture wars because of
its perceived obsession with
identity politics.
Attacks on what Jordan
Peterson, the spiky Canadian
right-wing intellectual, calls
the left’s “authoritarian
tolerance” extend much
further than complaints
about transgender girls
winning female sports events.
The influence of the
Twitter account “Libs of
TikTok” has exploded this
year. It harvests video clips
made by left-wing Americans,
often working in schools, and
reposts them to incite outrage
among an audience of
millions, amplified by
conservative media outlets. A
recent viral clip showed an
eighth grade English teacher
in Oklahoma on TikTok
supporting LGBT students,
saying: “If your parents don’tIf the future of the left in
America is embodied by John
Fetterman, then it is very big
indeed.
At a hulking 6ft 9in with
tattooed arms so long he calls
them selfie sticks, the former
small-town mayor chosen to
fight for Pennsylvania’s
crucial US Senate seat has an
imposing presence and, now,
a fearsome weight of
expectation resting on his
broad shoulders.
Fetterman, 52, currently
the state’s lieutenant
governor, trounced his
nearest party rival, a centrist
congressman, in a primary
election last week to win the
Democratic Party
nomination.
If he can repeat the trick in
November’s mid-term
elections then he could help
the Democrats keep control
of the Senate, thanks to a kind
distribution of contested
seats in this year’s election
cycle for the party. The
Republican Party is expected
to win back the House of
Representatives.
Fetterman’s emergence
also has voters wondering if
the American left has found a
way to overhaul the
widespread impression that
all it really cares about is
enormous public spending
and personal pronouns.
The moderate and
progressive wings of the
Democratic Party
temporarily ceased feuding in
2020 to seize the White
House and the Senate and
retain control of the House of
Representatives. This uneasy
truce is fraying in the heat of
primary battles and under
the weight of recriminations
over the collapse of President
Biden’s signature Build Back
Better legislation, including
plans for massive climate and
social welfare measures.
Provisions for paid parental
and sick leave have beenDavid Charter
Washington
accept you for who you are,
f*** them. I’m your parents
now.” Posts this week also
drew attention to “drag
queen storytime”, “drag kids
dress up” and “queer youth
open mic” events for
schoolchildren around the
country.
Libs of TikTok, which has
1.2 million followers on
Twitter, has an agenda to
reveal “that our schools are
infested with sexual
predators and kids are being
groomed”, as it declared in a
recent tweet. Although
criticised for sometimes
taking material out of
context, it has put a spotlight
on school boards as they
become a political
battleground. It has already
been credited with shaping
restrictive state legislation in
Florida about what can be
taught in schools and may
have contributed to the
worsening image of
Democrats across the US.
Polling in March by Schoenthem. Caiazzo sees the Roe v
Wade debate as a wake-up
call for the party to focus on
issues that really matter to
voters and motivate them to
turn up at the polling station.
The left hope to produce
more Fettermans able to
rebuild connections with the
blue-collar voters who
deserted them in recent
years. Fetterman won support
by championing security and
jobs. At a campaign event in
eastern Pennsylvania’s rust
belt he told a gathering of
unionised steelworkers: “We
need to keep making s*** in
this country.” It is what white
working-class voters have
been waiting to hear from
Democratic candidates, and
what they heard from Donald
Trump with his America First
agenda.
Fetterman has the left
feeling as if they have a new
champion who will not easily
be painted by the right as a
dangerous, out-of-touch
extremist.in 2016 and Bernie Sanders,
the self-proclaimed
“democratic socialist”
standard-bearer, in 2020.
“Where we were three weeks
ago is very different from
where we are now,” he said,
“and polling has shown that
enthusiasm on the
Democratic side, which has
waned since 2020, has now
begun to spike back because
of this issue.”
An NBC News poll last
week showed record support
for abortion rights, with 63
per cent opposed to
overturning Roe v Wade. It
also found that voters are
now tied on their preference
for the outcome of
November’s elections: 46 per
cent want Republicans to
control Congress and 46 per
cent want the Democrats to
win. That was a slight
improvement for the
Democrats from 44 per cent
in March and seen by party
strategists as a sign that the
abortion row will play well forCooperman Research showed
that 61 per cent of Americans
viewed the Democrats as “out
of touch with hardworking
Americans” and “so focused
on catering to the far-left
wing of the party that they’re
ignoring Americans’ day-to-
day concerns” such as “rising
prices” and “combating
violent crime”.
However, a new front has
suddenly opened up that has
given the left the opportunity
to fight back and transform
the debate about personal
rights and freedoms: a leaked
draft ruling that suggests that
the US Supreme Court will
this summer overturn the
national guarantee of access
to abortion, as enshrined in
the Roe v Wade judgment of
1973.
“The whole reproductive
rights issue has completely
reframed the mid-terms,”
said Joe Caiazzo, who worked
on the presidential
campaigns of Hillary Clinton,
the arch-moderate Democrat,John Fetterman has
blue-collar appealThe hermit kingdom has fallen. Now
Omicron will strengthen Kim’s hand
When Kim Jong-un praised a crowd of
cheering students and young workers at
this month’s May Day celebrations, the
North Korean dictator and his subjects
were beaming and unmasked.
Within days, however, a student “in
close contact” with Kim fell ill with a new
fever that was sweeping the country,
according to Daily NK, a news agency
based in South Korea that has a network
of contacts inside North Korea.
The proximity of the case to the
Supreme Leader may finally have forced
Pyongyang’s hand. For on May 12, after
clinging to the claim that it had remained
Covid-free throughout the pandemic, the
regime revealed that the coronavirus had
pierced the country’s borders.
Kim, now masked, was pictured at cri-
sis meetings. By yesterday, North Korea
had reported 2.46 million cases of “fever-
ish symptoms”, almost 10 per cent of its
nearly 26 million people. Saturday was
the fifth consecutive day of more than
200,00 new cases and about 750,
were held in isolation.
Yet in a country with no vaccination
programme and a population left vulner-
able by hunger and malnutrition, the
death toll rose by just one, to 66.
Whatever the official numbers, the
onset of Omicron poses the greatest
domestic challenge of Kim’s decade in
power. The ramifications could spread
far beyond the “hermit kingdom”. The
World Health Organisation warned last
week that high levels of transmission of
the coronavirus among unvaccinated
people risks creating a new variant.
The infected student on May Day was
the nephew of a trade official who has
recently visited a border region of China
where Omicron was rampaging, said the
Daily NK source in Pyongyang.
The gathering followed a huge military
parade on April 25 marking the 90th
anniversary of the Korean People’s Army.
Among the ranks of goose-stepping
troops were thousands bussed in from
the regions, including provinces neigh-
bouring China, the probable conduit for
the virus. This show of military might
appear to have become the country’s first
super-spreader event.
Kim has so far responded to the emer-
gence of Covid with what could be mis-
taken for candour. He described the out-
break as the “greatest turmoil” in the
country’s history and excoriated senior
apparatchiks for their handling of the
health crisis, while being pictured casu-
ally smoking a cigarette.
In reality, he is deploying the classic
despot playbook of finding fall guys for
the failings of the state. For this high-risk
approach to the pandemic can only have
been authorised at the very top.
“Kim’s blaming of North Korean offi-
cials for the outbreak underscores his
Philip Sherwell Asia Correspondent
After a super-spreading military parade, North Korea has 2.46 million cases of ‘fever’. Its tyrant is already turning it to his advantage
unshakeable. But today’s third-genera-
tion tyrant has also demonstrated he
wants to be seen to nod to public senti-
ment. During one of the public dressings-
down of officials last week, he instructed
them to listen to the “voice of the crowd”.
So why did North Korea stubbornly
turn down offers of jabs from its ally
China, or Covax, the global vaccine-shar-
ing initiative, even after Omicron forced
other Asia-Pacific states to abandon their
“Covid fortress” policies?
Ideologically, the country hews to the
state creed of juche, or obsessive self-
reliance, invented by Kim Il-sung. It is
extremely cautious, nationalistic, suspi-
cious of outsiders and paranoid about
foreign influence, perceived or real.
There are also unconfirmed reports
that Pyongyang did not want Chinese-
made jabs or the AstraZeneca originally
offered under Covax, and was holding
out for mRNA vaccines.
“Their pandemic strategy was to close
the border and wait to ride it out. It was
the same approach they took successfully
with Sars and Mers,” said Kee Park, a Har-
vard neurosurgeon who has made 18
working visits to North Korea, referring
to previous coronaviruses.
That strategy has dramatically failed.
The regime has responded by ordering
lockdowns in towns and cities and divert-
ing supplies of medicines and food to
Pyongyang, its greatest concern for any
instability.
Restrictive lockdowns cannot be
imposed in the countryside, where the
planting season is under way. In a coun-
try suffering from food shortages — there
were reports of starvation last winter —
any disruption could be catastrophic.
Pyongyang has also issued fresh
orders for troops to use live ammunition
against border intruders. It is no empty
threat: when a South Korean fisheries
official fell or jumped from his boat and
ended up in North Korean waters in
2020, troops shot him dead in the water,
doused his body in oil and set it alight,
fearing he could be carrying the virus.
The crisis is unlikely to bring about a
thaw in relations with North Korea’s
southern neighbour.
North Korea has ignored offers of
humanitarian assistance from Seoul,
where Yoon Suk-yeol, the hawkish new
conservative president, recently took
office. On the same day it announced its
first Covid cases, it fired three ballistic
missiles into the sea off its east coast.
And as Joe Biden arrived in Seoul on
Friday for his first visit to Asia as presi-
dent, US and South Korean officials said
Pyongyang had completed preparations
for further long-range missiles tests or
possibly even a nuclear one.
“Pandemic or not, Kim will probably
continue to focus on his weapons pro-
gramme, because it guarantees his own
safety and survival,” said Soo Kim.KCNA/REUTERSCatholic priests battle
demonic possession in the
1973 film The Exorcistworking with the Regina
Apostolorum — a Vatican-
approved religious university
in Rome which this week held
its 16th annual exorcism
course in Rome, where 120
participants discussed how
unusual physical strength, a
sudden ability to speak Latin,
Hebrew and Aramaic and the
vomiting of nails can denote
demonic possession.
Interest in the course has
soared thanks to Pope
Francis, a firm believer in
exorcism, who has given
speeches about helping
“those possessed by evil”.
The woman in Vicenza had
already been seen by anthey were overworked and
received little support from
their bishops to deal with
long queues of Catholics
claiming Satanic possession.
The priests say they need
help from psychologists to
filter out the many who are
mentally unstable rather than
possessed. “Some said they
were seeing 30 to 50 cases a
day,” said Giuseppe Frau, one
of the researchers.
Exorcists said they had
little administrative help from
bishops and had also been
forced to conduct exorcisms
on Covid-positive people.
The survey was
undertaken by expertsTom Kington Rome
After nine hours of intense
prayer alongside the delirious
young woman, Father
Giuseppe Bernardi knew he
had pulled off one of his
toughest exorcisms.
Terrified monks had called
him to the church in Vicenza,
northeast Italy, in December
as the woman leapt across
pews, assaulted them and
hurled abuse in languages
including Latin. “She was
hysterical,” Bernardi, 80,
said.
The rare insight into his
work came as Italy’s exorcists
told researchers this week
Monks attacked in pews, insults screamed in Latin: it’s a devil of a job for Italy’s exorcists
Spanish priest and professor
of theology, said the course
was helping to turn out a
generation of exorcists better
equipped to deal with the
Devil. “Costa Rica didn’t have
a single exorcist and last year
they named their first one,”
he said. “Manila in the
Philippines now have a
dedicated office and team.
“It used to be like the Wild
West out there, but the
quality is going up and we are
seeing more co-operation
with psychologists. Exorcism
always arouses interest
because of films about it, but
the truth is these priests need
to be trained.”The survey found there
were at least 290 exorcists in
Italy. In Spain there are 37.
Luis Santamaria del Rio,
another of the researchers,
said: “Many of the potentially
possessed people they see in
Spain have spent time with
New Age, spiritual or
meditation groups.” He said
that Spanish exorcists
normally tackled cases with
weekly prayer sessions, each
lasting 30 minutes to an hour,
for up to six months.
The survey also identified
16 Catholic exorcists in
England and Wales, three in
Scotland and nine in Ireland.
Father Pedro Barrajon, aexorcist before her parents
brought her to the church for
confession. They fled when
she went berserk; police had
to evacuate worshippers.
Following the marathon
prayer session she fell into a
deep sleep, a possible sign of
“liberation” from the devil,
according to Bernardi.
The priest said he had
access to psychologists able
to tell whether a person was
disturbed but that he
contacted them himself
without help from the
Church. “Sometimes an
exploratory prayer is needed
to see if there is possession or
not,” he said.