North Korean leader Kim Jong Un applauded the Hermit Kingdom’s “brilliant success” in preventing the coronavirus from infiltrating its borders, once again claiming that no one in the lonely country has contracted the deadly virus, according to reports.
Kim, unmasked, told the politburo on Thursday that the country, which closed its borders and quarantined anyone with symptoms as the virus spread worldwide, “prevented the entry of the malignant virus and maintained a situation stable, “the BBC reported, quoting the Korean. Central News Agency.
But the despot, whose health has been the subject of rumors in recent months, urged officials to remain vigilant against the virus, warning that complacency risks “an unimaginable and unrecoverable crisis.”
North Korean health officials informed the World Health Organization that the country had examined 922 people for coronavirus until June 19 and that all results were negative, according to Edwin Salvador, the WHO representative. in the north.
He told the Associated Press in an email that North Korea told WHO that so far it has released 25,551 people from quarantine and that up to 255 people remain isolated.
Strangers remain highly skeptical that the rebel regime has managed to completely sidestep the pandemic, given its poor health infrastructure and close trade and travel ties to China, where the disease emerged late last year.
During the politburo meeting, Kim “analyzed in detail the six-month national emergency epidemic work” and said that the success in managing the outbreak was “achieved by the forward-thinking leadership of the Party Central Committee,” according to KCNA. .
“He repeatedly warned that hasty relief from anti-epidemic measures will provoke an unimaginable and unrecoverable crisis,” the outlet reported on Friday.
Volunteers from the International Network Federation have been working along the border area on virus prevention measures amid multiple unconfirmed reports of cases within the country, according to the BBC.
But the latest accounts of life in the Pyongyang capital seem to show that life goes on as normal.
Describing its antiviral efforts as a “matter of national existence,” North Korea earlier this year closed almost all cross-border traffic, banned visitors, and placed symptomatic people under strict closure.
The official newspaper Rodong Sinmun published several images of Kim at the meeting, the first state photos of him in weeks, where neither he nor the ruling party officials who attended were wearing masks.
Even before the pandemic, Pyongyang was struggling with the pain of UN sanctions imposed on its nuclear program, and its trade volume with China was halved last year compared to 2016 figures.
Kim launched an ambitious five-year national development plan last year, but experts say the pandemic likely derailed some of its main economic goals.
In December, he declared a “frontal advance” against sanctions and urged his people to remain resilient in the fight for economic self-sufficiency.
Rumors of Kim’s health swirled after he did not appear at a celebration dedicated to his late ruling grandfather, Kim Il Sung, on April 15. North Korean state media later reported that he attended the opening ceremony of a fertilizer plant on May 1.
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