ah, it is a testament to the moment is the waters one of the many success stories from a bastion of biodiversity starts may 20th, on dw, is eat up the news, asia coming up to date. north korea's expanded coverage emergency. more than a 1000000 people could be able to do, took over 19, but the country doesn't have vaccines and health care is week. how much was put the situation kids. meanwhile, in china, shanghai said to target date for lifting all covered restrictions. many of its 25000000 people have been your a strict lockdown for nearly 2 months. ah,

i'm british manager, welcome to d w. news asia. glad you could join us. north korean state media has reported at least 50 deaths and some 1000000 people down with fever days after acknowledging a coven 19 outbreak for the 1st time. for more than 2 years, the country had claimed it was covered free. it had also refused to accept vaccines from abroad for its population experts for a looming catastrophe in the secrets of state. and that have already been offers of help from neighbors, china and south korea. ah, the state media's anti virus program is full on it and it stresses help young young is working to curb it's major outbreak of the virus. and as interviews with people who overcome cove it or what the nation calls fever, trying to boost morale amid a nationwide log down all out among the pedestal. not often talk on its own. i

started giving paracetamol on general cold medicine and antibiotics every 5 hours to my daughter was going to london, and her fever was gone after 3 days, so, and your letters from bunger to gay, my doctors in north korea are promoting the use of paracetamol and traditional korean medicine, as covey treatments, but many cannot get them. leader kim jong own has now ordered the army to help distribute medicine. seeing health officials failed to stabilize supply. i've talked to the police here. we have it was that as him, but even the most timely medication delivery might still be insufficient for north korea's fight against cove it, most of his population is still unvaccinated. north korea previously refused vaccine offers from the kovacs distribution scheme. experts say the country faced the programs monitoring requirements would expose it to international scrutiny. in

addition to pyongyang, major ally beijing, south korea is now also offering to help don't even boudreau. china repeatedly expressed my willingness to always open the door to humanitarian aid for north korea. without political or military consideration, or what if north korea responds to south korea's offer to provide aid, or we will give full support, including covered 19 vaccines and medicines, medical equipment, and health personnel. since north korea acknowledged it's only con outbreak last week, doesn't have already died in a 1000000 others sickened by the corona virus. hagel with no vaccines and little medications available. taking precautions has become the key in north korea's cove . it battle and running me now for more is dr. so jim leim, she's a senior lecturer in north korean studies at the university of central lancaster. doctor lim, when you speaking about north korea,

we are talking about an unvaccinated population, weak healthcare facilities, and the only kron variant. how serious could the situation get in north korea? everyone is the same situation maker is about a little bit of a speculation at the moment because we don't know how exactly the situation is like in north korea because for like last more than 2 years, there were no other foreigners in north korea who could communicate with our state of the country, however, from the media in the north korea, it looks like there's something going on. but on top of that, in terms of the data, it looks very serious, but at the same time he said, oh, so a little bit doubtful whether those high number, the so did high number of the positive cases are true. or there's some kind of

a discrepancy in data, but it looks like there's something going on. seriously, north korea, her unblocked, owns, have been announced. do you think that as the all new strategy north korea has to fight this outbreak or will it be forced to seek help from abroad? so my point of view, north korea is more or less the following a chinese, our strategy, as we see the shanghai in china imposed very harsh, looked out strategy. and north korea has been in the same pay on the same page like china, but it's quite us a shameful. and because the people in north korea, they really suffer from this, i looked down and now it will be even harsher than our better. so because of that now, for example, unicef or a south korean government or the by doing a demonstration in the state, they try to offer the vaccination and medical services and hall, free or north korea regime could take them and opened the door for the people. for

more than 2 years, as you were also saying earlier, the country kept insisting i didn't. i was single corporate gears and it's a claim that no one outside of north korea believed help us understand the thinking her of kim jong on. when surely he knew that denying the problem wouldn't make it go away. this that's true. and if we think about what happened before cove is 9, jin kim jones resin had a little bit of a threat inside. in terms of the information influx, or even culture influx from outside, because through the us smuggling process, people could obtain the especially korean are popular culture. because our south in north korea's, or share the same language and many of the population, especially who could obtain those as eyes the card or dvds or yes, a base for a through their mobile phones so that they can watch out korean drama or listen to

the k pop, then they even mimicked the way how south korean speak. and they try to follow the, the fissions of south koreans. and in that way, the nuclear regime kind of was under threat because people now knew that our north korea regime is something wrong. but because of the coffee, the r 19, it was really good excuse for jim jones. read him to cause all these doors and the smuggling and then equal access to the information. so that's why and with careers been knocked down for such a long time. now on the day of at north korea confirmed its 1st quarter cases of last week. it also converted messiah durst's wife, farm resorts, when there is a greater human catastrophe stirring you in the 1st. so that is very interesting point, because before in the past, when arkwin jones father was still alive,

are the north korea used to use the tactic called our nuke for food. so whenever de ar test tested of missiles, then you know, the, for example, the united states provided a food aid to come them down so far, north korea center. they haven't had any engagement. we, the us, after trump administration, and biden has been really indifferent in north korea. so this could be away, north korea sends out the signor's palace or engage with those and the via, even now having this is changed because all of sudden north korea now is, did the covalent agency changer. so this could be the sign from north korean regina that they may be willing to engage with outside of the word. but because of the saving face, the approach outside their side. so it's more like they send out dizziness outside of the world that they could reach out north korean, reach him, but interesting believer there all the time being there or sojourn lynn from the sun university of central lancashire. thank you so much. thank you. meanwhile,

in china and shanghai official to the city is looking to resume normal life from the 1st of june, deputy mayor. as all minks announcement is the clearest timetable so far of a return to normalcy in the city of 25000000, where many residents have been confined to their homes, compounds and neighborhoods for more than 6 weeks. official service, it is covered, our brick is under control and that all districts but one have eliminated transmission among those not already. important journalist, fabiani crouch, my is based in be doing and drives me now from there with more far beyond. what is the situation right now in shanghai? are people still in lockdown? yeah, by all criteria. yes. i mean the am, local government is arguing that and a fewer than 1000000 people are still locked to the apartments. but i will be very

cautious with those numbers. i know lot of cases and where residents are legally allowed to go outside. but actually the local neighborhood committee, i like the lowest m a governing a form here and bent them from doing so. why? because and they're afraid that only 1 am positive case would basically look the whole compound up again. and even if you can go outside, what you see is a city that is still far away from operating normal. i mean the, i am checkpoints between each sub district. there i am deserted streets and, and yeah, shops close. so it's still a locked on. but of what a very significant from the announcement today is that the vice mayor a gave really a concrete time table for the opening up and, and he said that, you know, there will be a gradual and orderly opening up am i also, until the 1st of june, i found it she one other date, even more interesting. he said that until mid or latest m end of june, there will be a full reopening, basically,

a full new normal. and let's see how that plays out. her father, other than people her is impacting businesses, huge just to day and there were, there was a new set of data published and there was actually worse than we expected. so m r industry production down um, roughly 3 percent a retail m, roughly down 11 percent. and some of the indicators were even worse than dream. the covert a shock. m early 2020, for example, property sales. so we have a huge impact. and m a if you want to have any hope and we can see that in may, it's getting slightly better than our for a pro. but um, did this whole m? yeah, m o, the hope is basically only very fragile because the whole strategy of opening up and doesn't change. we keep a 0 covert here. and on the weekend the government has announced that m m. china

will not be hosting the asian football cup. that's an event that scheduled for july of 23. so you, i don't have much hope for a very soon opening up here in china and their water, the situation and be june where you are what we don't have a city wide locked on here and am, but still already some strict measures. for example, i'm working from home and restaurants are closer only open for delivery and already one district has em suspended public transport. and, and there are several $100000.00 people that also confined to m to the apartments. however, it is not as bad as it used to be in shanghai. so there still some hope that you know, the worst case scenario will not happen, but the situation is definitely tense. we leave with her for the time being were thank you so much for that update fabiani crutch for joining me from being on the covert situation image china currently. thank you so much,

robin and that's it for today, there's more on the corona about a situation across asia, on our website, the w dot com, forward slash asia, and as ever you can follow us on facebook and twitter as well. go back to model. at the same time, we'll see you then for by people in trucks injured when trying to flee the city center. more and more refugees are being turned away. families on the reason for the credit on it is with extreme ross getting 200 people had signed up in june around the world.

more than 300000000 people are seeking refuge in the line because no one should have to flee. make up your own mind. d. w. made for mines. ah, ah, china reports and other slate of lousy economic figures as its locked downs continue to take a bite on employment is up. retail sales are down. aging struggles are adding to growing concerns of the likelihood of a global recession. also on the show, china's problems add impetus to cooperation between the e u and u. s. we'll look at a new agreement on semiconductors and talk to commissioner margarete for stagger about where trade relations between the 2 blocks need to go. and the war and

ukraine has made getting goods between europe and asia, even more difficult. we'll look at a rail road that still running for now on welcome to the show. i've seen busy in berlin. retail sales and factory output in china slumped a 2 year lows in april, while unemployment climb to to your highs. and who figures show the growing economic damage wrought by the countries ongoing, coven, 19 locked downs, retail sales in china, falling more than 11 percent for the month. that's year on year. a dropped last seen at the outbreak of the pandemic. industrial production, meanwhile, fell about 3 percent. unemployment reached more than 6 percent in urban areas. dozens of chinese cities remain in tight lockdown, including the world's largest port city, shanghai, or in my colleagues over to and enjoys me in studio for more. clifford, how unexpected are expected were these numbers? well they're, they're certainly surprising and.