Kim Jong Un, North Korean leader, led an emergency meeting of the politburo and directed that the military be used for stabilizing the supply of medicine in Pyongyang during the first Covid-19-related outbreak. State media reports Monday.

North Korea last week acknowledged that it’s fighting an “explosive Covid-19 epidemic,” with experts raising concern that this virus could decimate a country without adequate medical supplies or a vaccine.

Kim criticized “irresponsible”, organizing and executing abilities of Cabinet members and public health officials at the Sunday emergency politburo meeting. State news agency KCNA said that Kim made the comments.

Kim stated that the government ordered distribution of national medicine stocks, but the drug procured from the state is not being distributed to people through pharmacies in the time and exact manner it was intended.

Kim instructed that “powerful forces”, including the medical corps of the army, be sent to Pyongyang City in order “to immediately stabilize the supply” of medicines.

KCNA reported that Kim also visited pharmacies near Pyongyang’s Taedong River to learn more about drug supply and demand.

Kim stated that pharmacies were not properly equipped to carry out their duties smoothly. There aren’t adequate drug storage areas, other than showcases and salespeople weren’t dressed in proper hygiene.

North Korea stated that “large numbers” of deaths in the country have been caused “by people being careless with drugs because they lack knowledge about the Omicron variant virus and how to treat it.”

According to KCNA’s report, there were 392,920 more fever-stricken people in the country, along with eight additional deaths.

It didn’t report the total number of suspected Covid-19 positive cases.