Hyonhee Shin and Josh Smith

SEOUL (Reuters). North Korea’s first COVID-19-related outbreak is now under control. There are no vaccine programmes available. This has prompted new demands for aid from the government that can save lives and help to protect the economy.

Yoon Suk-yeol’s office stated that South Korea intends to aid the North and provide vaccines. The specific steps would then be discussed with Pyongyang.

North Korea does not appear to have administered or imported any COVID-19 vaccinations and it’s one of two countries still waiting for a vaccine campaign. It had not reported a case of the disease until Thursday’s report by KCNA.

Its sudden admission of the fact that there were infections “exploding” throughout the country led to some people speculating that Pyongyang may soon be open to vaccines.

“Unveiling the outbreak through KCNA, which is a primary channel for external communications, indicates that North Korea could seek vaccine support,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. The crisis cannot be solved by isolation or control alone.

Some others stated that North Korea is still uncertain if its stance has softened and that many obstacles have geopolitical implications.

Analysts believe that “vaccine diplomacy” with North Korea would ease tensions elsewhere, such as in the area of North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapon programmes.

“If inter-Korean collaboration does occur, it will help defuse militari tensions and reopen negotiations and possibly lead to humanitarian exchanges like a reunion of families separated,” Cheong Seongchang, the director of South Korea’s Sejong Institute’s North Korea studies center, said.

North Korea may be reluctant to accept assistance because of the politicization.

Cheong stated that Pyongyang is more likely to seek out its Beijing allies first. However, Pyongyang declined an earlier offer to China of 3,000,000 COVID-19 vaccination doses by China’s Sinovac Biotech.

He said, “If the situation becomes more chaotic it would be hard to reject Western support.”

According to an U.N. independent human rights investigator, authorities in Pyongyang seemed suspicious of the possibility that they will only be given a very small dose of vaccine. Then they could feel pressured to take more.

South Korean officials claim that Sinovac and British-Swedish were not wanted by the North. Astrazeneca (LON) Photos, preferring U.S. made Moderna (NASDAQ: Pfizer (NYSE:). Instead, negotiations with COVAX, a global vaccine-sharing program, were stopped by North Korea refusing to accept indemnity clauses regarding side effect.

“But that was before the outbreak, and now they’re in an emergency,” Kwon Young-se, South Korea’s nominee to be the unification minister responsible for inter-Korean ties, told a parliamentary confirmation hearing on Thursday.

A spokesperson from Gavi, the charitable that runs the program, stated that North Korea can accept the international vaccine sharing programme COVAX if it agrees. This will allow the country to meet international immunization goals.

Thae Youngho, an ex-North Korean diplomat and now South Korean lawmaker called on Yoon to request temporary sanctions exemptions during the summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Yoon in order to permit the shipping of fuel or power generators into North Korea.

“Everyone talks about vaccine support, but North Korea does not have the infrastructure to keep the vaccines in cold storage or energy to maintain the system,” he said. “It’s like giving rice to a household that doesn’t have a cooker and firewood.”

Washington declared on Thursday its support for North Korea providing assistance, however it stated that there were no plans at the moment to share vaccines.

A spokesperson for the State Department told Reuters that the DPRK should cooperate with the international community in order to accelerate the vaccination of its people. She used the initials of North Korea’s official title, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.