Coronavirus: North Korea claims it will soon ‘defuse the crisis completely’ as Asian neighbours fight Covid resurgence

The North says 99.98 per cent of its 4.77 million ‘fever’ patients have fully recovered, without releasing any figures on those who tested positive

The World Health Organization has cast doubts on North Korea’s claim of ‘anti-epidemic stability’, saying things were getting worse, not better

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People wearing face masks are pictured in Pyongyang earlier this month as they lay flowers and pay their respects on the 28th anniversary of Kim Il-sung’s death. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:07pm, 18 Jul 2022

North Korea is on the path to “finally defuse” a crisis stemming from its first acknowledged outbreak of Covid-19, the state news agency said on Monday, while Asian neighbours battle a fresh wave of infections driven by Omicron subvariants.

The North says 99.98 per cent of its 4.77 million fever patients since late April have fully recovered, but due to an apparent lack of testing, it has not released any figures of those that proved positive.

“The anti-epidemic campaign is improved to finally defuse the crisis completely,” KCNA said. It added that the North had reported 310 more people with fever symptoms.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks at a Workers’ Party of Korea meeting in Pyongyang earlier this month. Photo: KCNA via KNS / AFP

The World Health Organization has cast doubts on North Korea’s claims, saying last month it believed the situation was getting worse, not better, amid an absence of independent data.

The North’s declaration could be a prelude to restoring trade long hampered by the pandemic, one analyst said.

“Under the current trend, North Korea could announce in less than a month that its Covid crisis is over and that could be a prelude to resuming cross-border trade,” said Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Sejong Institute’s North Korea studies centre in South Korea.

Analysts say the authoritarian North has used the pandemic to tighten already strict social controls. Pyongyang blamed its outbreak on “alien things” near its border with the South, urging its people to avoid anything that comes from outside.