SEOUL, Aug 11 (Reuters) – North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has declared victory over COVID-19 and his sister indicated he too contracted the virus, while vowing “retaliation deadly” against South Korea, which the North accuses of causing the outbreak. .
Kim ordered the lifting of the maximum anti-epidemic measures imposed in May, although he added that North Korea must maintain a “steel-strong anti-epidemic barrier and intensify work against the epidemic until the end of the health crisis world,” reports North Korea’s KCNA. the agency reported Thursday.
North Korea has never confirmed how many people caught COVID, apparently because it lacks the means to conduct widespread testing.
Sign up now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
Instead, he reported the daily number of patients with fever, a figure that rose to about 4.77 million. But it has not registered any new cases since July 29.
Kim made his declaration in a speech on Wednesday at a meeting on COVID policy with thousands of unmasked officials sitting inside, according to footage from state broadcasters.
Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong also addressed the meeting and said the young leader himself had been suffering from fever symptoms, according to KCNA, indicating for the first time that he was likely infected with the virus.
“Although he was seriously ill with a high fever, he could not lie still for a moment thinking about the people he had to take care of until the end in the face of the anti-epidemic war,” he said in remarks broadcast on the channel. North Korean state television.
Some of the officials at the meeting were seen wiping away tears as he spoke about his brother’s illness.
He did not elaborate on Kim’s health, but blamed South Korean propaganda leaflets found near the border for the coronavirus outbreak.
North Korean defectors and activists in the South have floated balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets to the North for decades, sometimes along with food, medicine, money and other items. Read more
Kim Yo Jong criticized the new South Korean government of President Yoon Suk-yeol for trying to lift the 2020 ban on leaflet campaigns, calling the South the “main unchanging enemy”.
“We can no longer ignore the non-stop influx of garbage from South Korea,” he said, threatening to “exterminate” the South Korean authorities.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks at a Workers’ Party politburo meeting on the country’s response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in this undated photo released by the Korean Central News Agency of the North (KCNA) on May 21, 2022. KCNA via REUTERS
“Our countermeasure must be deadly retaliation.”
South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles cross-border relations, expressed regret over North Korea’s repeated “baseless claims” about the origin of its COVID outbreak and its “rude and threatening remarks.”
Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup told reporters that North Korea’s accusation “was more likely to be an excuse for provocations.”
‘PROMOTING UNITY’
Analysts said that while the authoritarian north has used the pandemic to tighten social controls, its victory declaration could be a prelude to restoring trade hampered by border blockades. Read more
“The meeting seems to be mainly aimed at fostering unity among people, but it could also be to send a message to China that they are free of COVID and ready to restart trade,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor of North Korea University. Studies in Seoul.
Analysts have also said the easing of restrictions could pave the way for the North to test a nuclear weapon for the first time since 2017.
North Korea’s official COVID death rate of 0.0016 percent, or 74 out of about 4.77 million, is an “unprecedented miracle,” its anti-virus chief Ri Chung Gil told the meeting.
The World Health Organization has cast doubt on North Korea’s claims. Read more
“Whatever the truth behind the numbers, that’s the story being told to the citizens of North Korea. And right now the numbers are telling them that the epidemic is over,” said Martyn Williams, a researcher on the project 38 North based in the United States.
Like other countries, North Korea likely balanced the need for control with public frustration with restrictions, he said.
North Korea’s statement on COVID comes despite no known vaccine program. Instead, he says it relied on lockdowns, domestically produced medicine and what Kim called “the advantage of a Korean-style socialist system.”
Sign up now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
Reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Josh Smith; Editing by Stephen Coates and Lincoln Feast, Robert Birsel
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.