How South Korea flattened the curve

As other countries hurtle toward disaster, South Korea looks like the safer and smarter place to be. So what can other governments learn about how to handle coronavirus?

by Jean H Lee / March 27, 2020 / Leave a comment

Careful testing and tracing have allowed South Korea to “flatten the curve.” Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Prospect composite

South Koreans are an unabashedly social people. They live and work in close quarters and love to eat family-style. They’re among the world’s biggest drinkers, and sharing shot glasses is part of the etiquette. The communal joie de vivre is a big part of what makes South Korea so vibrant.

That density and the propensity to socialise are also dangerous breeding grounds for a contagion like the coronavirus. And it may be why Covid-19, first detected in South Korea on 20th January, spread quickly one February weekend, jumping from 30 confirmed cases to thousands in a matter of days. For a time, South Korea had the largest number of confirmed cases outside China.

But South Korea—where “bbali-bbali,” or “fast, fast,” is a mantra—wasted no time in mobilising government officials, scientists, medical personnel and its people to confront the challenge, employing technology as a public health tool in an aggressive campaign of testing, tracing and tracking. After two intense months, South Korea appears poised to “flatten the curve.” While South Koreans are not yet taking their masks off—clusters of infection continue to crop up—there is hope that the country has turned a corner.

As the pandemic spreads, South Korea serves as the vanguard for democracies weighing transparency against privacy as they harness technology to fight an outbreak that has depleted healthcare systems, battered economies and overturned daily life. Seoul’s transparent and comprehensive approach stands in contrast with China, which concealed the outbreak and then locked down cities to contain it, and nations in the west that were initially slow to act.

Lazarus Heist live

A special episode recorded in front of an audience in New York. What’s it like working in North Korea? How are hackers tracked in real time? #LazarusHeist

Apr 18, 2021

BBC: The Lazarus Heist, S1, Ep1: Hacking Hollywood

A movie, Kim Jong-un and a devastating cyber attack. The story of the Sony hack. How the Lazarus Group hackers caused mayhem in Hollywood and for Sony Pictures Entertainment. And this is just the beginning…

Aug 11, 2017

New York Times Op-Ed: Donald Trump is giving North Korea exactly what it wants

If President Trump thinks that his threats last week of “fire and fury” and weapons “locked and loaded” have North Koreans quaking in their boots, he should think again. If anything, the Mao-suit-clad cadres in Pyongyang are probably gleeful that the president of the United States has played straight into their propaganda.

Aug 10, 2017

Esquire: Inside Kim Jong Un's bloody scramble to kill off his family

While Kim Jong Un stares down his enemies abroad, it's easy to forget that he's also fighting a battle from within his own borders: to survive at all costs. Like any autocratic leader, he's under constant pressure to maintain order and allegiance. But his youth and inexperience make staying in power that much more of a challenge, which in turn requires absolute control. Opposition must be eliminated. No one is safe, not even his own family.

Feb 24, 2017

New York Times Op-Ed: North Korea's Palace Intrigue

After the 14th-century Korean ruler Taejo, founder of the Joseon dynasty, chose the youngest of his eight sons to succeed him, a spurned son killed the heir apparent and at least one of his other half brothers and eventually rose to the throne. Today, rumors of royal fratricide are again swirling, this time around the court of Kim Jong-un, the ruler of North Korea.

PYONGYANG, North Korea -- Middle school students work on a computer in front of a poster of North Korea's rockets and satellites behind them in this photo taken in Pyongyang, North Korea, on Oct. 24, 2011. (Photo credit: Jean H. Lee)

Jan 7, 2016

New York Times Magazine: Kim Jong Un's Generational Ambitions

It was party time in Pyongyang. Workers scrambled to hang congratulatory banners in the lobby of the Koryo Hotel, my home away from home in the North Korean capital, where I was posted as an Associated Press correspondent. A gaggle of cooks, still in aprons and chef’s hats, dashed out from the kitchen to watch the festivities, and mothers tightened the pink bows in their daughters’ hair as the girls fidgeted in anticipation.

Jul 20, 2013

AP: Vet Returns to North Korea for 1st Black Navy Aviator

Two years after he made history by becoming the Navy's first black pilot, Ensign Jesse Brown lay trapped in his downed fighter plane in subfreezing North Korea, his leg broken and bleeding. His wingman crash-landed to try to save him, and even burned his hands trying to put out the flames.

Apr 29, 2013

AP: Pyongyang Glitters, but Rest of North Korea Still Dark

A year after leader Kim Jong Un promised in a speech to bring an end to the "era of belt-tightening" and economic hardship in North Korea, the gap between the haves and have-nots has only grown with Pyongyang's transformation.

Sep 24, 2012

AP: Sweeping New Changes Expected at North Korean Farms

North Korean farmers who have long been required to turn most of their crops over to the state may now be allowed to keep their surplus food to sell or barter in what could be the most significant economic change enacted by young leader Kim Jong Un since he came to power nine months ago.

Jul 12, 2012

AP: Ex-North Korean Star Recalls 'Ping Pong Diplomacy'

Her eyes well up when Li Pun Hui recalls her role in a historic example of "ping pong diplomacy."

"For 50 days, 24 hours a day, we lived together as one, trained together, slept in the same room and ate all our meals together," Li told The Associated Press at an interview in Pyongyang. "We shared the same food and our feelings."

Jun 23, 2012

AP: In North Korea, learning to hate US starts early

For North Koreans, the systematic indoctrination of anti-Americanism starts as early as kindergarten and is as much a part of the curriculum as learning to count.

Apr 8, 2012

AP: North Korea's Bethlehem is Birthplace of Kim Religion

As the snow drifts through the towering evergreen trees, silence enshrouds this remote pilgrimage site, a place some here consider the Bethlehem of North Korea.

As North Korea celebrates the centenary of Kim Il Sung's birth, his past, like the misty peaks of Mount Paektu, remains veiled in myth.

featured work from my portfolio

Lazarus Heist live

How South Korea flattened the curve

As other countries hurtle toward disaster, South Korea looks like the safer and smarter place to be. So what can other governments learn about how to handle coronavirus?

Latest Posts