In photos, North Korea’s Kim still wears no mask as coronavirus pandemic ‘threatens whole mankind’
- Officials in Pyongyang and its state media have repeatedly insisted that the North remains totally free of the virus
- Leader Kim Jong-un, often pictured not wearing masks, presided over meeting that called for stronger measures against the pandemic
North Korea called for tougher and more thorough countermeasures to keep citizens safe from the fast-spreading coronavirus at a meeting where leader Kim Jong-un presided, state media said on Sunday.
North Korea continues testing for the virus, with more than 500 people in quarantine, but has no confirmed infections yet, a country representative of the World Health Organisation told Reuters.
Officials in Pyongyang and its state media have repeatedly insisted that the North remains totally free of the virus, but Sunday’s report did not make that assertion.
The coronavirus epidemic – which has infected more than 1.7 million worldwide – had become “a great disaster threatening the whole mankind, regardless of borders and continents”, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
“Such environment can become a condition creating some obstacles to our struggle and progress,” it said, adding Pyongyang maintained “very stable anti-epidemic situation”.
