One wonders how the North Koreans are faring with this virus. We hear nothing from them but that’s not unusual. They go along for a time being quiescent and then suddenly erupt in a fusillade of rockets flying over Japan to land in the ocean, proving something to somebody. I suspect that by now the fish are sort of expecting it and staying away from the impact zone.

Anyway, I would guess that many North Koreans are dying from this virus because of chronically overstressed immune systems further weakened by inadequate nutrition, a useless medical system, lousy personal hygiene and uncaring government.

From what we know about it, the astonishing thing is that anybody over there lives past about 20 in the best of times. In these dark days, even if everything were on hand to treat the entire country, Kim Jong Un would hoard it all in Pyongyang for himself and his supporters. It wouldn’t surprise anybody if the death toll from this pandemic in Norkland exceeds the two million initially projected for the United States. We’re not likely ever to hear about it if that is what’s going on.

If there is such a thing as karma, you also wonder what anybody ever did in a prior life to warrant being born North Korean in this life. Even a Soviet gulag would be better, offer better odds of survival, not be so soul-crushingly pitiless.  Maybe Hitler and Stalin and Mao are being born there, dying, born again, die again, reborn again, die again….

A furtive part of you secretly hopes so. You know, the part that cheers when the bully takes one square in the teeth and there’s that satisfying crack.

It’s not nice, not appropriate, to think like that. I was raised better and should be ashamed of myself. But I hope anyway.

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