SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has declared victory over COVID-19 and ordered preventive measures eased just three months after acknowledging an outbreak, claiming the country’s widely disputed success would be recognized as a global health miracle.
The official North Korean Central News Agency reported that Kim’s sister had said that her brother was suffering from a fever. They attributed the outbreak to leaflets being flown across the border from South Korea.
Experts believe that North Korea deliberately manipulated the severity of the epidemic to aid Kim in maintaining absolute control over the country amid increasing economic hardships. While they believe Kim is moving to other priorities, experts are worried that his sister might have made provocative remarks.
Since North Korea admitted to an omicron outbreak of the virus in May, it has reported about 4.8 million “fever cases” in its population of 26 million but only identified a fraction of them as COVID-19. The outbreak is slowing down for several weeks, and only 74 have been confirmed to be infected.
“Since we began operating the maximum emergency anti-epidemic campaign (in May), daily fever cases that reached hundreds of thousands during the early days of the outbreak were reduced to below 90,000 a month later and continuously decreased, and not a single case of fever suspected to be linked to the evil virus has been reported since July 29,” Kim said in his speech Wednesday, according to KCNA.
” Even though we have yet to give a vaccine, the country’s success in stopping the spread and restoring safety in public healthcare and making the nation virus-free is incredible. This would make history in public health.” he stated.
For Kim to declare victory against COVID-19 suggests that he wants to move on to other priorities, such as boosting a broken and heavily sanctioned economy further damaged by pandemic border closures or conducting a nuclear test, said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
American officials and South Koreans have suggested that North Korea may be preparing for its first nuclear attack in five years. This is amid a string of weapon tests this year, which included the first intercontinental ballistic missile demonstrations since 2017..
Experts say Kim is attempting to use provocative testing activities to demonstrate his dual intention of advancing his arsenal and putting pressure on the Biden administration in long-stalled negotiations that aimed at leveraging nukes for urgently needed security concessions and sanctions relief.
The bellicose rhetoric of Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, is concerning because it indicates she will try to blame any COVID-19 resurgence on the South and is also looking to justify North Korea’s next military provocation, Easley said.
North Korea first suggested in July that its COVID-19 outbreak began in people who had contact with objects carried by balloons flown from South Korea – a questionable and unscientific claim that appeared to be an attempt to hold its rival responsible.
Activists have flown balloons over the border for many years to disseminate hundreds of thousands of leaflets that criticize Kim. North Korea often expresses fury at these activists as well as South Korea’s leaders for failing to stop them.
On Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong repeated those assertions, calling the country’s viral crisis a “hysteric farce”, which was launched by South Korea in order to intensify tension. She claimed that her brother had suffered fever symptoms and praised his “energetic and meticulous guidance” for bringing an “epoch-making miracle” in the fight against COVID-19.
“(South Korean puppets still push leaflets and other dirty items into our territory. She stated that we must fight it hard.” We have considered many counter-action strategies, but we must use a devastating retaliatory .”
countermeasure.
Kim Yo Jong didn’t explain why he made a reference to Kim Jong Un being sick.
Experts outside the country suspect that the virus was spread by North Korea’s reopening of its northern border to China for freight traffic in January. It also surged after a large-scale military parade in Pyongyang, April.
Kim banned travel between counties and cities in May to stop the spread of the virus. Kim also stated that he had economic goals and large groups of people continued to congregate at construction, agricultural, and industrial sites.
Kim asked for an easing in preventive measures, and that the nation maintain effective border control and vigilance, citing global spreading of monkeypox and coronavirus variants.
