North Korea puts Kaesong city under lockdown after suspected coronavirus case
- North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un takes ‘pre-emptive measure’ of isolating Kaesong
- If confirmed, this would be the first case of Covid-19 acknowledged by Pyongyang
North Korea said it had placed the city of Kaesong near the border with South Korea under lockdown over coronavirus concerns.
The North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported Sunday that the measure was taken on Friday afternoon after it found a person with suspected Covid-19 symptoms in the city.
It said the person was a runaway who had fled to South Korea years ago before illegally crossing the border into the North earlier in July.
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If that person is officially declared a virus patient, the person would be the North’s first confirmed coronavirus case.
North Korea had previously claimed it was free of the virus, having cut off traffic to and from China since earlier this year. The coronavirus was first detected late last year in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and later spread across the globe.
But little is known about the reclusive North Korea’s true health situation.
The runaway – a 24-year-old man surnamed Kim – was to stand trial in the South for allegedly raping a female defector at his home in Gimpo City near the western part of the inter-Korean border last month, Yonhap reported.
“The victim reported to police a few hours after the incident and we questioned him to bring charges against him but he was allowed to remain free pending a trial,” a police officer told Yonhap.
Kim served his military duty in Kaesong and he is well acquainted with the geography of the city. He reportedly escaped to the North by swimming through a river that flows through the border, the report said.
KCNA said the unnamed person “was put under strict quarantine as a primary step and all the persons … who contacted that person and those who have been to the city in the last five days are being thoroughly investigated” and quarantined, KCNA said.
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To address the “dangerous situation … that may lead to a deadly and destructive disaster,” North Korean leader Kim Jong-un convened an emergency politburo meeting on Saturday to adopt a “maximum emergency system and issue a top-class alert” to contain the epidemic, KCNA said.
Despite strict preventive measures “the vicious virus could be said to have entered the country,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
Kim said the government took the “pre-emptive measure of totally blocking Kaesong City” on July 24.
Early in July, Kim praised the country’s six months of anti-epidemic efforts as a “shining success” at a party meeting, though he also said that easing measures too hastily would lead to an “unimaginable and irretrievable crisis,” according to KCNA.
Reporting by Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, DPA and Park Chan-kyong
