North Korea’s Kim Jong-un declares victory in battle against Covid-19
- Kim Jong-un ordered the lifting of anti-epidemic measures imposed in May
- His sister, Kim Yo-jong, said the North Korean leader himself had suffered from fever symptoms
While lifting the maximum anti-pandemic measures, Kim said that North Korea must maintain a “steel-strong anti-epidemic barrier and intensifying the anti-epidemic work until the end of the global health crisis”, according to a report by state news agency KCNA.
Analysts said that although the authoritarian North has used the pandemic to tighten social controls, its victory declaration could be a prelude to restoring trade hampered by border lockdowns and other restrictions.
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Observers have also said it may clear the way for the North to conduct a nuclear weapon test for the first time since 2017.
North Korea’s official death rate of 74 people is an “unprecedented miracle” compared to other countries, KCNA reported, citing another official.
Instead of confirmed cases, North Korea reported the number of people with fever symptoms. Those daily cases peaked at more than 392,920 on May 15, prompting health experts to warn of an inevitable crisis.
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.
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Pyongyang’s declaration of victory comes despite rolling out no known vaccine programme. Instead, the country says it relied on lockdowns, home-grown medicine treatments, and what Kim called the “advantageous Korean-style socialist system”.
The North has said it was running intensive medical checks nationwide, with daily PCR tests on water collected in borderline areas among the measures.
It also said it has been developing new methods to better detect the virus and its variants, as well as other infectious diseases, such as monkeypox.
Kim’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, said the North Korean leader himself had suffered from fever symptoms, according to KCNA, indicating for the first time that he might have been infected with the virus.
“Even though he was seriously ill with a high fever, he could not lie down for a moment thinking about the people he had to take care of until the end in the face of the anti-epidemic war,” she said in a speech praising his efforts.
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North Korean defectors and activists in the South had for decades sent balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets to the North, alongside food, medicine, money and other items.
“We can no longer overlook the uninterrupted influx of rubbish from South Korea,” she said, threatening to “wipe out” Seoul’s authorities. “Our countermeasure must be a deadly retaliatory one.”
South Korea’s Unification Ministry expressed regret over North Korea’s claim that letters from defectors were responsible for the Covid outbreak and the threats Pyongyang made, Yonhap news agency reported.
