After stating for months that North Korea has no coronavirus cases, dictator Kim Jong Un locked up a border city after a person with suspicious symptoms was discovered, state media reported Sunday.
The North Korean Central News Agency said Kaesong, near the border with South Korea, was closed after Kim believed that the “vicious virus” may have entered the country.
Kim said he took “the preventive measure of completely blocking the city of Kaesong and isolating each district and region from the other” on Friday afternoon, the state news agency said.
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According to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, O Chun-bok, North Korea’s minister of public health, highlighted the situation in a news broadcast on Korean Central Television.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un placed the city of Kaesong near the South Korean border under full lockdown after a person was found there with suspicious symptoms of COVID-19, saying “the vicious virus” may have entered the country, state media reported.
(Naohiko Hatta / Kyodo News / Korea Central News Agency / Korea News Service via AP)
“In the last six months since the outbreak of infectious diseases, strong emergency measures have been taken on all fronts across the country,” said O. “Despite efforts, it appears that a dangerous crisis has occurred in which the virus may have entered our borders. “
State media said the alleged COVID-19 patient is a fugitive who fled to South Korea three years ago before illegally returning earlier last week.
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un attends an emergency Politburo meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea on Saturday, July 25, 2020.
(Central Korean News Agency / Korean News Service via AP)
North Korea said respiratory secretion and blood tests showed the person was “suspected of having been infected” with the coronavirus and has since been quarantined.
People who had been in contact with the patient and those who had been in Kaesong in the past five days were also quarantined.
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NK News, an organization that tracks North Korean state media, said the person crossed the border on July 19. At a meeting on July 24, North Korea’s top leaders switched to a “maximum emergency system” and agreed to launch a “first-class alert.”
If the person officially declares himself a coronavirus patient, he or she would be the first confirmed case in North Korea. As the coronavirus has spread worldwide and closed several countries this year, North Korea has firmly said it has had no cases of the virus, a claim questioned by outside experts.
“It is impossible for North Korea not to have a single case of coronavirus,” Jung H. Pak, a former CIA analyst on North Korea, told Fox News in March.
People wearing face masks to help protect themselves against the spread of the new coronavirus walk across a map of two Koreas showing the North Korean capital Pyongyang and the South Korean capital Seoul at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju , near the border with North Korea, on Sunday, July 26. 2020
(AP Photo / Ahn Young-joon)
The Hermit Kingdom has repeatedly said that there has not been a single case in its territory, but implemented social distancing measures in April. North Korea also received $ 900,000 from the World Health Organization in the spring to fight the virus.
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In late March, the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported that more than 100 North Korean soldiers stationed at the Chinese border died from the virus. South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo also claimed that Kim was spending “considerable time” away from the Pyongyang capital due to the virus.
Describing its antivirus efforts as a “matter of national existence,” North Korea earlier this year closed almost all cross-border traffic, banned foreign tourists, and mobilized health workers to quarantine anyone with symptoms.
After Kim Jong Un disappeared from public view for weeks in the spring before re-emerging, reports also circulated that he was concerned about the virus.
However, the Kaesong blockade is the first known measure taken in a North Korean city to stop the pandemic.
People head to Kaesong, North Korea, on July 23, 2019.
(Naohiko Hatta / Kyodo News via AP)
Kaesong, with an estimated population of 200,000, is located just north of the heavily fortified border with South Korea. It once housed the Koreas jointly managed industrial complex, which has been closed since 2016 amid nuclear strains.
Last month, North Korea blew up an inter-Korean liaison office in Kaesong to protest a campaign by South Korean activists who have been sending leaflets against Pyongyang across the border.
An analyst said North Korea’s announcement on Sunday was important for several reasons.
“It is a watershed moment for North Korea to admit a case,” Choo Jae-woo, a professor at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, told Reuters. “I could be looking for help in the world. Perhaps for humanitarian assistance.
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During a Politburo emergency meeting on Saturday, state media said Kim criticized “the performance of the loose guard” in the border area where the suspect crossed.
Hand-cleaned gels are displayed at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, near the border with North Korea, on Sunday July 26, 2020.
(AP Photo / Ahn Young-joon)
Kim and other leaders were reportedly informed of the results of an intensive investigation by a military unit responsible for the crossing and discussed the administration of “severe punishment.”
More than 33,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea in the past 20 years to avoid poverty and political repression, mainly through China. But it is highly unusual for North Korean refugees to return, according to The Associated Press.
People wearing face masks to help protect themselves against the spread of the new coronavirus pass a notice on precautions against coronavirus disease at the Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, near the border with North Korea, Sunday, July 26, 2020 .
(AP Photo / Ahn Young-joon)
The South Korean military told Yonhap that it seems likely that an individual crossed the border into North Korea, adding that authorities are investigating which route the person used.
Barnini Chakraborty of Fox News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
