SEOUL: North Korea has for the first time acknowledged a suspected case of COVID-19 within its borders, after a defector suspected of having the virus returned from South Korea earlier this month.
“An emergency event happened in Kaesong City where a runaway who went to the south three years ago, a person who is suspected to have been infected with the vicious virus, returned on July 19 after illegally crossing the demarcation line,” state news agency KCNA said
Until now, Pyongyang had insisted that not a single infection had breached the country’s borders, which remain closed, media reports said.
Following the news of the possible infection, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened an emergency politburo meeting, declared a state of emergency, and imposed a lockdown on the border city of Kaesong.
KCNA did not confirm whether the individual had been tested, but said that an “uncertain result” from a medical checkup had prompted officials to quarantine the person and trace his contacts.
(With inputs from agencies)
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