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Days after leader Kim Jong Un declared “success” over COVID-19, North Korea has eliminated a mask requirement and reduced other viral restrictions, according to official media on Saturday.
Following Pyongyang’s earlier this week accusation of Seoul for the COVID-19 outbreak in the North and threat to “wipe out” the South Korean government if necessary, the news came this afternoon.
According to Pyongyang’s official Korea Central News Agency (KCNA), virus limitations were loosened since “the public health catastrophe produced in the country was entirely defused and its whole territory was turned into a clean one free from the malignant virus in the shortest period.”
Given that the entire nation had been declared a “epidemic-free zone,” according to KCNA, “the step for mandatory mask-wearing was lifted in all places with the exception of frontline areas and frontier cities and counties.”
This Monday, only a few months after declaring its first cases in May, North Korea declared a “shining victory” over Covid.
Apart from border zones, social exclusion and other anti-virus measures have also been lifted.
The recommendation to wear masks was made, however, for those who had respiratory disease symptoms, and North Koreans were admonished to “stay watchful” against “strange things”—obviously alluding to propaganda pamphlets from the South—while also being exhorted to “keep vigilant.”
South Korean activists have been sending balloons over the border for years carrying money and political leaflets despite a ban that went into force in 2021. The North has long objected to this practise.
Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of Kim Jong Un, declared “deadly” revenge against Seoul on Wednesday and attributed the North’s Covid outbreak to these actions.
Kim Yo Jong further disclosed that the supreme leader had become ill and had a “high fever” during the outbreak.
According to KCNA, North Korea has reported 74 deaths out of roughly 4.8 million “fever” illnesses since late April, with just a small portion of those cases being recognised as Covid.
Covid figures and Pyongyang’s assertions that it has contained the disease have long been disputed by experts, including the World Health Organization.
According to analysts, the healthcare system in North Korea is among the poorest in the world, with few intensive care units and minimally furnished hospitals.
Although it may have imported some vaccinations from China, it is not thought to have immunised any of its 26 million inhabitants, according to the Seoul-based specialised website NK News.
