Chairing a meeting with health workers and scientists, Kim Jong-un announced Thursday the “victory (…) in the war against the malignant pandemic diseaseAccording to the North Korean state press agency KCNA, three months after the regime entered an emergency due to the appearance of an outbreak that it always described as a “fever”, without mentioning the word coronavirus.
Following the announcement, Kim Jong-un ordered the relaxation of measures of emergency imposed from a maximum level of prevention to a normal level.
The North Korean leader also praised the contributions of health professionals to “successfully defuse the serious crisis of the spread of the epidemic” and defended the “country’s social system, which is the best in the world“.
Kim Jong Un makes the announcements about eradicating covid cases. Photo: EFE
Kim himself would have suffered from the disease.
Blame it on the South
On May 12, Pyongyang reported its first case of covid-19 for the first time after not having made any contagion public since the start of the pandemic and imposed lockdowns across the country, although it has not reported any more suspected cases since July 29.
North Korea, which still had not administered a single vaccine anticovid until May, has rejected offers of health aid, including vaccines, from Seoul and the United States, but, according to the Global Alliance for Vaccination (GAVI), would have accepted vaccines from China and already started managing them.
Kim Jong Un and his sister Kim Yo Jong. Photo: Reuters
The leader’s sister, the strong woman of the regime, blamed the pamphlets and other “dirty objects” from South Korea of causing the virus outbreak in the North and proposed tough measures against the neighboring country.
The woman, who is deputy director of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party, accuses Seoul of sending pamphlets infected with the coronavirus in balloons to the North. This is a reference to leaflets sent out by groups of North Korean defectors based in the South.
According to an article published this morning by the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), she is quoted as saying that the North is ready to respond “not only by exterminating the virus, but also eradicating the South Korean authorities“.
A violent accusation which is part of the war of words that constantly revives the hermit kingdom to reinforce internal unity and, in this case, to disclaim any responsibility in the Covid-19 crisis.
Aware that the North could use its repeated accusations as a pretext for further military provocations, Seoul denounced the “unsubstantiated claims” and said he was firmly prepared for “all possibilities.”
The dictator had covid-19
The powerful sister of the leader also revealed that the president himself fell ill during the outbreak.
Kim “had a high fever during the days of this quarantine war, but he couldn’t lie down even for a moment because he thought about the people he was responsible for,” the sister said, painting her brother as the heroic leader who protects his people, almost like a divinity, something common in the regime and the way he presents his dynasty.
It is the first time that a senior North Korean official has revealed that their leader, whose health is always under close scrutiny of analysts, was infected with the virus.
The communist regime has one of the worst healthcare systems in the worldwith poorly equipped hospitals, few intensive care units, experts say.
In contrast, South Korea, with a much more advanced health system and a large percentage of the population vaccinated, has a fatality ratio of 0.12%, according to official data.
EFE and RFI