The sister of the leader of North Korea revealed that he too had a fever and blamed South Korea for the outbreak of the pandemic.
The leader of North Korea, Mr Kim Jong Un, declared yesterday Wednesday the “victory” of his country over the new pandemic coronavirusafter nearly two weeks of no case of a patient “with a fever,” in Pyongyang’s terminology, while the young leader’s sister, Kim Jo Jong, said he too had a fever, dismissing his efforts and threatening South Korea, which it blames for the outbreak, which it says was caused by propaganda leaflets, will be “eliminated” with “deadly reprisals”.
Mr. Kim gave order to lift “maximum” deterrence measures of the spread of the pandemic he imposed in May, adding that his country must maintain a “steel barrier” against the epidemic and “intensify the work” to deal with it “until the end of the global health crisis”, according to the state agency KCNA news.
The head of state, speaking during a meeting with health professionals and scientists, expressed his satisfaction with the “victory” over the pandemic, “a historic event that once again shows the world the greatness of our state, the indomitable perseverance of our people and our proud national customs,” always according to KCNA.
North Korea, one of the first countries in the world that closed its borders in January 2020, after SARS-CoV-2 emerged in neighboring China, it had long boasted that it had been able to stave off the pandemic.
But on May 12, Pyongyang admitted an outbreak was underway and Kim Jong Un took the fight against the pandemic personally. After July 29, no case of a patient “with fever” has been reported by the North Korean government.
According to the data that has been announced, there have been 4.8 million infections since the end of April but only 74 deaths, in other words the official death rate is 0.002%.
North Korean hospitals are notorious for chronic under-equipment and a lack of intensive care units. No treatment for COVID-19 is available in the country, nor is there a vaccine.
Neighboring South Korea, with an enviable health system and a high rate of immunization of its population, has a mortality rate of 0.12%.
Experts emphasize that the official figures announced by Pyongyang are inadequate and unreliable. In the absence of tests, the number of confirmed cases was not even made public.
Kim Jo Yong reported that her brother, “even though he was seriously ill, he never rested for a moment” because “he was thinking of those who should receive care”. She herself accused her South Korea that he caused the outbreak by dropping propaganda leaflets bearing SARS-CoV-2 into the country.
Such propaganda campaigns were officially banned in 2020, but the leader’s sister has accused the government of new conservative President Yun Sok-gil of plans to abolish it, calling it Pyongyang’s “main enemy”.
He threatened that the South Korean government would be “wiped out” with “deadly retaliatory measures.”
The Ministry of Unification of South Korea for his part, he deplored “baseless claims” that the outbreak of the pandemic was caused by propaganda material dropped by defectors and “threats” by North Korea, according to South Korea’s national Yonhap news agency.
Analysts believe that the purpose of declaring Pyongyang’s “victory” in the fight against the pandemic is probably to lift the restrictive measures, to restore the trade, especially with China, and may pave the way for a new nuclear weapon test, the first since 2017.
THE World Health Organisation is initially skeptical of North Korea’s announcements about the pandemic. In June, he estimated that the situation was probably getting worse, not better as Pyongyang claimed.
“Whatever the truth behind the numbers, this is the story being told to the citizens of North Korea. And at this moment, the numbers tell them that the epidemic is over.” commented o Martin Williams of the American Studies Center 38 North.
RES-EMP
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