SEOUL—North Korea reported its first apparent Covid-19 case at a city near the border with South Korea, as leader Kim Jong Un enacted the country’s maximum emergency system and warned officials to “face up to the reality.”
The ill individual was a runaway who had gone to South Korea three years ago and had illegally crossed back into North Korea on July 19, according to a Sunday state-media report.
North Korea’s state-controlled Central News Agency announced “a critical situation in which the vicious virus could be said to have entered the country” after a suspected patient returned from South Korea by illegally crossing the border last week.
Coronavirus test results were described as “uncertain,” but the person was still put under quarantine while health officials launched an investigation into those who might have come in contact with the individual in Kaesong, the state media reported.
If confirmed, he or she would be North Korea’s first official covid-19 patient in a country that has remained “virus-free,” according to Pyongyang authorities.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened a Politburo meeting Saturday to address “the dangerous situation in Kaesong City that may lead to a deadly and destructive disaster,” state media said.
