Kim said at a meeting of top politicians that they had prevented the new coronavirus from entering the largely closed country, North Korean state media reported.
“We have thoroughly prevented the spread of the malignant virus and have maintained a stable situation against the epidemic despite the global health crisis, which is a brilliant success,” the state news agency KCNA said on Friday.
However, Kim also chided officials for being accommodating as the global health crisis has not yet subsided.
“Expedited relief from anti-epidemic measures will result in an unimaginable and unrecoverable crisis,” Kim said, according to the report.
Images released by KCNA of the meeting showed Kim chairing dozens of officials who did not appear to be practicing social distancing. None were shown wearing masks.
But Pyongyang-based diplomatic sources said on the streets that everyone wears masks and practices some form of social distancing. Life has mostly returned to normal in the North Korean capital, they said, and construction sites, shops and hotels are already open. Schools there reopened in June, a source said.
Sources said North Korean officials appear to be confident they have the virus under control, at least in Pyongyang, although one of the sources said he has not heard of anyone being examined.
The meeting was Kim’s first public appearance in weeks. The young North Korean leader has kept a busy schedule full of public events in recent years, but for the past three months he has kept a surprisingly low profile.
More than 10.8 million people worldwide have contracted the new coronavirus, and more than half a million have died as a result of the virus. All East Asian countries have reported at least one case of Covid-19, except North Korea.
Public health experts say it is highly unlikely that the virus has not reached the country in any way. One of the most likely scenarios is that the virus may have entered through the northern border with China, where smuggling is common. Groups of coronaviruses have been identified in northeast China, including one in Jilin province in May.
Experts believe North Korea would be particularly vulnerable to a Covid-19 outbreak due to its poor healthcare infrastructure.
But the country is also in a good position to prevent the virus from penetrating its borders. North Korea stopped allowing people to enter when the pandemic first emerged months ago, and people within the country do not enjoy the freedom to move however they want. Deserters say average North Koreans are not allowed to travel far from home without government approval.
The representative of the World Health Organization in North Korea told NK News that 922 people in the country were tested for the virus, all of whom tested negative. North Korea’s population is likely to be around 25 million, although an exact number is unclear because Pyongyang does not make demographic information publicly available.
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