North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has declared victory in the fight against the corona virus during a meeting with scientists and health care workers. He also announced that the strictest corona measures in the country will expire, state media said on Thursday.
The North Korean regime first reported a corona infection in May. Since then, nearly 5 million cases of what the country calls “fever” have been recorded, according to the state news agency KCNA. More than 25 million people live in North Korea. Only 74 people would have died. North Korea has not reported any new infections since the end of July.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is questioning the official North Korean figures, partly due to the lack of testing capacity in the Stalinist-ruled country. In July, the WHO said the situation in North Korea was deteriorating, not improving.
North Korea closed its borders to travelers and virtually all foreign trade for most of the pandemic. Only a limited number of goods from China were allowed to enter the country by train or ship. After the rapidly rising number of infections in May, the country introduced lockdowns. As far as is known, there is no vaccination program. The regime claims to have developed its own treatment.