North Korea’s First Official Corona Infection

North Korea officially reported infection with the coronavirus for the first time on Thursday. But, so far, the internationally isolated country has been kept safe from the pandemic.

 

However, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un announced a lockdown.

The state news agency KCNA, which announced the contamination, speaks of a “serious national emergency”. According to the news agency, it concerns the highly contagious omikron subvariant BA.2.

It is widely doubted that no one in North Korea has contracted the coronavirus in the past two years. For example, Kim Jong-un fired several senior officials a year ago because they allegedly failed to implement government policy against corona. For example, according to the leader, they had caused “a major crisis” who did not go into details.

North Korea also shares a nearly 1,000-mile border with China, which is far from well-guarded. The number of infections has risen sharply in recent weeks in the Chinese border city of Dandong. As a result, Kim Jong-un called for stricter border controls.