UN investigator calls for 60M vaccine doses for North Korea

By KIM TONG-HYUNG
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United Nations’ independent investigator on human rights in North Korea has called for the international community to provide 60 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the isolated authoritarian nation, which has recently showed signs of easing one of the world’s most restrictive pandemic border closures. Tomas Ojea Quintana said Wednesday the doses would be enough to inoculate North Korea’s population of more than 25 million people at least twice. He said the shots would possibly encourage Pyongyang’s authoritarian leadership to step further out of isolation after the country’s self-imposed lockdown of the past two years created challenges for outside monitors, aid groups and diplomats.