Skip to main content

Kim Jong Un's sister blames South Korean leaflets for North Korea's COVID-19 outbreak

Close up of seated man speaking during meeting.
Kim Jong Un has declared victory over coronavirus, according to state media.(Reuters: KCNA)

Kim Jong Un's sister is blaming a COVID-19 outbreak in North Korea on leaflets from South Korea, according to state media. 

The news came as Mr Kim declared victory over  coronavirus and ordered that restrictions imposed in May be lifted.

North Korea has not revealed how many COVID-19 cases have been found in the country.

However since July 29, the nation has reported no new suspected cases despite international aid organisations saying it has limited testing capabilities.

While lifting the maximum anti-pandemic measures, Mr Kim said 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 Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Analysts said 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.

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 toll of 74 people is an "unprecedented miracle" compared to other countries, KCNA reported.

Instead of confirmed cases, North Korea reported the number of people with fever symptoms.

A person dressed in full personal protective equipment disinfects an aisle in a small grocery store.
Many foreign experts believe the scale of the North Korean outbreak is being under-reported to prevent public unrest.(AP: Jon Chol Jin)

Those daily cases peaked at more than 392,920 on May 15, prompting health experts to warn of an inevitable crisis.

Mr Kim's sister, Kim Yo Jong, said the North Korean leader himself had suffered from fever symptoms, and blamed leaflets from South Korea for causing the outbreak, KCNA reported.

"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.

WHO doubtful of North Korea's COVID claims

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

North Korea's declaration of victory comes despite no known vaccine rollout in the country. 

Instead, North Korean said it relied on lockdowns, homegrown medicine treatments, and what Mr Kim called the "advantageous Korean-style socialist system".

The North 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.

Reuters

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

[January] North Korea's Provocations in 2022

Jan. 5, 2022 Around 08:10 a.m.(KST), North Korea fired  a hypersonic missile  into the East Sea from Mupyung-ri, the Jagang Province area. Japan's Defense Ministry said a ballistic missile had flown about 500 km before landing in waters outside Japan's exclusive economic zone.  Hypersonic glide missiles can avoid detection longer than ballistic missiles because they fly towards targets at lower altitudes(thereby evading radar systems) at 6,200 km per hour or five times the speed of sound. North Korea had not responded to repeated calls from South Korea and the United States to return to denuclearization talks. The Biden administration said he would meet North Korea "anytime, anywhere" without preconditions.  KCNA, North Korea's state-run media, reported that the hypersonic gliding warhead detached from the missile and flew 120km laterally before it precisely hit its target 700km away. This ballistic missile launch - the first in 2022- came 78 days after the North&
Post a Comment
Read more

[November] North Korea's Provocations in 2022

  Nov. 2, 2022 North Korea launched four short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) into the Yellow Sea at 6:51 a.m.(KST) from Chongju and Pihyon in North Pyongan Province, followed by three SRBMs into the East Sea at 8:51 a.m. from Wonsan, Kangwon Province. One of those three SRBMs landed in the South of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), which serves as the de facto inter-Korean maritime border. The SRBM landed in the sea 167 kilometers northwest of the island but only 57 kilometers northeast of the South Korean coastal city of Sokcho and 34 kilometers outside the South's territorial waters. This is the first time North Korea has fired a missile toward South Korean territory. At 9:12 a.m., North Korea fired an additional 10 suspected surface-to-air missiles into the East Sea from Nakwon, Chongpyong, and Sinpo in South Hamgyong Province and into the Yellow Sea from Onchon and Hwajin-ri in South Pyongan and Kwa-il in South Hwanghae Province. From 11:10 a.m., in response to the North&
Post a Comment
Read more

[Factcheck : Not True] South Korean leaflets is a root cause of North's COVID-19 Pandemic

  We made a factcheck on Kim Yo Jong's(Dictator Kim Jong-Un's sister) blame  on South Korea Leaflets for North Korea's COVID-19 outbreak. 
Post a Comment
Read more