North Korea declares victory over Covid-19, vows ‘deadly retaliation’ against South Korea for ‘causing’ outbreak

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, on Thursday, declared victory over Covid-19. Kim’s sister revealed that the North Korean President himself had suffered from fever and also vowed “deadly retaliation” against South Korea which it blames for causing the outbreak.

Kim ordered a lifting of maximum anti-epidemic measures imposed in May, adding that North Korea must maintain a “steel-strong anti-epidemic barrier and intensifying the anti-epidemic work until the end of the global health crisis,” according to a report by state news agency KCNA.

North Korea has never confirmed how many people caught Covid-19, apparently lacking testing supplies. It had instead reported daily numbers of fever patients, which totalled some 4.77 million but has registered no new such cases since July 29.

Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, said the young leader himself had suffered from fever symptoms, according to KCNA, indicating for the first time that he might have been infected with the virus.

“Even though he was seriously ill with a high fever, he could not lie down for a moment thinking about the people he had to take care of until the end in the face of the anti-epidemic war,” she said in remarks at a meeting on Wednesday to review the country’s anti-epidemic responses.

She did not elaborate on Kim Jong Un’s health, but blamed leaflets from South Korea found near the border for causing the outbreak.

North Korean defectors and activists in the South had for decades sent balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets to the North, alongside food, medicine, money, and other items. “We can no longer overlook the uninterrupted influx of rubbish from South Korea,” she said, threatening to “wipe out” Seoul’s authorities. “Our countermeasure must be a deadly retaliatory one.”

South Korea’s Unification Ministry expressed regret over North Korea’s claim that letters from defectors were responsible for the Covid outbreak and the threats Pyongyang made, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.