North Korea has scrapped the mandatory wearing of masks almost everywhere along with other restrictions, the state news agency said on Saturday, days after its leader Kim Jong Un declared “landing victory” over Covid.
“The requirement to wear masks has been lifted everywhere except frontline areas and border cities and counties as the whole country is (out of the epidemic),” the official KCNA news agency reported. .
Social distancing measures have also been lifted in all regions except the border territories, the KCNA added.
The announcement came after Pyongyang this week accused Seoul of causing the covid-19 outbreak in the country and threatened to “eradicate” South Korean authorities if necessary.
Pyongyang asks North Koreans to “stay alert”
The regime, however, recommends the use of masks for those with symptoms and asks North Koreans to “be alert” for anything “abnormal”, which appears to refer to balloons sent from the south.
Despite the ban imposed in 2021, South Korean activists continue to send balloons containing leaflets and dollar bills, sparking protests in Pyongyang.
Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, has accused Seoul of being the origin of the epidemic in her country, the virus having entered, according to Pyongyang, through propaganda material sent from the South. Denouncing a “crime against humanity,” Kim Jong Un’s sister and adviser threatened Seoul with “strong retaliation.”
Kim Yo Jong also revealed that the North Korean leader was sick during the epidemic and “suffered from a high fever.”
WHO skeptical about epidemic figures
Experts, including the WHO, are skeptical of Pyongyang’s health statistics and its apparent control of the outbreak.
The country’s hospitals are notoriously poorly equipped, with few intensive care units and no treatment or vaccine, although the South Korean specialist outlet NK News reported that the country received doses of vaccines from China.
North Korea has recorded almost 4.8 million “fever cases,” as the number of infections is called, since the end of April, with just 74 deaths according to KCNA.
Source: BFM TV
