Harry Kazianis, a North Korea expert at the Center for the National
Interest think tank in Washington, said the Kims and several senior
North Korean officials had been vaccinated.
It was unclear which company had supplied its drug candidate to the
Kims and whether it had proven to be safe, he added.
"Kim Jong Un and multiple other high-ranking officials within the
Kim family and leadership network have been vaccinated for
coronavirus within the last two to three weeks thanks to a vaccine
candidate supplied by the Chinese government," Kazianis wrote in an
article for online outlet 19FortyFive.
Citing U.S. medical scientist Peter J. Hotez, he said at least three
Chinese companies were developing a coronavirus vaccine, including
Sinovac Biotech Ltd, CanSinoBio and China National Pharmaceutical
Group (Sinopharm), an unlisted Beijing-based company.
Sinopharm says its candidate has been used by nearly one million
people in China, although none of the firms have unveiled results of
Phase 3 clinical trial of their experimental COVID-19 vaccines,
which are under way outside China.
Some experts doubted that Kim would use an experimental vaccine.
"Even if a Chinese vaccine had already been approved, no drug is
perfect and he would not take that risk when he has numerous
shelters which can ensure almost complete isolation," said Choi
Jung-hun, an infectious disease expert who defected from North Korea
to the South in 2012.
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Mark Barry, an East Asia analyst and associate editor of the International
Journal on World Peace, said Kim would prefer proven European vaccines to one
supplied by Beijing.
"The risk is too great. But he's happy to get Chinese personal protective
equipment," Barry said on Twitter.
North Korea has not confirmed any coronavirus infections, but South Korea's
National Intelligence Service (NIS) has said an outbreak there cannot be ruled
out as the country had trade and people-to-people exchanges with China - the
source of the pandemic - before shutting the border in late January.
Microsoft said last month that two North Korean hacking groups had tried to
break into the network of vaccine developers in multiple countries, without
specifying the companies targeted. Sources told Reuters they included British
drugmaker AstraZeneca.
The NIS said last week it had foiled North Korea's attempts to hack into South
Korean COVID-19 vaccine makers.
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Stephen Coates)
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