North Korea orders national lockdown

SEOUL • North Korea confirmed its first Covid-19 outbreak yesterday, calling it the "gravest national emergency" and ordering a national lockdown, with state media reporting an Omicron variant had been detected in Pyongyang.

The first public admission of Covid-19 infections highlights the potential for a major crisis in a country that is lacking medical resources. North Korea has also refused international help with vaccinations and kept its borders shut.

As at March, no cases of Covid-19 had been reported, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), and there is no official record of any North Koreans having been vaccinated.

"The state's most serious emergency has occurred: A break was made on our emergency epidemic prevention front that had been firmly defended until now," said the official KCNA news agency.

Samples taken on May 8 from people in Pyongyang who were experiencing fevers showed a sub-variant of the Omicron virus, also known as BA.2, the report said, without specifying case numbers or possible sources of infection.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened a meeting yesterday of the ruling Workers' Party's powerful politburo, ordering a "strict lockdown" nationwide and the mobilisation of emergency reserve medical supplies.

"The state epidemic prevention work shall be switched over to the maximum emergency epidemic prevention system," KCNA said.

State television showed Mr Kim attending the politburo meeting wearing a disposable facial mask. In past footage of such meetings or other events, everyone but him wore a mask.

While North Korea had never formally confirmed a Covid-19 infection, South Korea and US officials have said an outbreak in the isolated country cannot be ruled out, as it had trade and people-to-people exchanges with China before sealing the border in early 2020.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said yesterday that China is ready to provide an "all-out effort" to aid North Korea's fight against Covid-19.

Mr Kim has enforced strict quarantine measures including intra-province movements, and in July 2020, declared an emergency and imposed a three-week lockdown on Kaesong, near the inter-Korean border, after a man who defected to the South in 2017 returned to the city showing Covid-19 symptoms.

The WHO's latest data showed that 64,207 of North Korea's 25 million people had tested negative for Covid-19 as at March 31.

North Korea had declined vaccine supplies from the Covax sharing programme and the Sinovac Biotech vaccine from China, suggesting the vast majority of civilians may be unvaccinated.

The office of South Korea's new president, Mr Yoon Suk-yeol, who was sworn in on Tuesday, said it would not link humanitarian aid to the political situation.

Mr Kwon Young-se, nominee for unification minister responsible for inter-Korea ties, told his confirmation hearing that he would prepare assistance for the North including Covid-19 treatment, syringes and medical supplies.

At the politburo meeting, Mr Kim said emergency measures are aimed at curbing the virus' spread and eliminating the source of transmission. The politburo criticised anti-epidemic officials' "lack of awareness, slackness, irresponsibility and incompetence", KCNA said.

A failure to contain infections could be an "unprecedented crisis" for Mr Kim's leadership, said professor of North Korean studies Lim Eul-chul at Kyungnam University in South Korea.

"Given an inferior vaccination situation and testing capacity and public health infrastructure compared to China, plus the lack of intensive care units, there's potential for scores of casualties," he said.

Earlier yesterday, Chinese state television reported that North Korea has required its people to stay at home since Tuesday as many have "suspected flu symptoms", without referring to Covid-19.

REUTERS