G-7 Blames North Korea Arms Push for Health Emergency

Foreign ministers from the G-7 industrialized nations criticized North Korea's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction for the country's humanitarian crisis, as state media reported over 170,000 new cases in an escalating fever outbreak, according to BLOOMBERG.

Following a meeting in northern Germany on Saturday (May 14), the G-7 ministers issued a joint statement expressing grave concern about the situation in North Korea, which they said is the result of the country's decision "to prioritize its unlawful WMD and ballistic missile programs over the welfare of its own people."

On Saturday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un described a rising fever outbreak as "the biggest upheaval since the nation's inception," with state media reporting more than 170,000 new cases and 21 deaths.

Since the country announced this week that it had discovered a Covid-19 case within its borders, he has ordered a lockdown of major cities.

North Korea had previously denied having any Covid-19 instances, a claim that had been questioned by experts in the United States, Japan, and elsewhere. It has also turned down vaccines from other nations.

The G-7 foreign ministers encouraged the government to "enable international humanitarian organizations to transport critically needed humanitarian items such as food and medicines, as well as to conduct impartial assessments of humanitarian needs as quickly as feasible."

North Korea's continued testing of ballistic missiles is "strongly condemned," the ministers said, and they reiterated their demand that the country "abandon its nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs, as well as any other weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programmes in a complete, verifiable, and irreversible manner."