North Korea claims ‘alien things’ near border with South responsible for Covid outbreak

North Korea has claimed that the source of its Covid outbreak originated from people touching “alien things” near the South Korean border.

The North Korean government made these remarks on Friday while announcing the results of the probe that sought to find out how the hermit country contracted its first case. The comments were seen as an attempt to deflect the blame to its neighbour for the wave of coronavirus infections affecting the North.

The government then ordered its people to “vigilantly deal with alien things coming by wind and other climate phenomena and balloons in the areas along the demarcation line and borders”, reports Reuters citing state media KCNA.

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According to its findings, an 18-year-old soldier and a five-year-old kindergartener who contacted the unidentified materials “in a hill around barracks and residential quarters” in the eastern county of Kumgang in early April showed symptoms and later tested positive for the coronavirus.

“The investigation results showed that several persons coming from the area of Ipho-ri in Kumgang County of Kangwon Province to the capital city in mid-April were in fever and a sharp increase of fever cases was witnessed among their contacts,” the state media said.

The KCNA said all other fever cases reported in the country till mid-April were due to other diseases, but it did not elaborate.

North Korea has been battling its first outbreak of Covid infections, declaring a state of emergency in May after years of enforcing tight restrictions to prevent the virus from entering the country.

In July 2020, North’s leader Kim Jong Un declared an emergency and imposed a three-week lockdown on Kaesong town, near the inter-Korean border, after a man who defected to the South in 2017 returned to the city showing COVID symptoms.

(With inputs from agencies)

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