N Korea’s virus response raises fear of outbreak

Seoul: North Korea is quarantining thousands of people and shipping food and other aid to a southern city locked down over coronavirus worries, officials said, as the country’s response to a suspected case reinforces doubt about its longstanding claim to be virus-free.

But amid the outside skepticism and a stream of North Korean propaganda glorifying its virus efforts, an exchange between Pyongyang and the UN is providing new clarity and actual numbers about what might be happening in the North, which has closed its borders and cut travel never a free-flowing stream by outsider monitors and journalists.

In July, North Korea said it had imposed its maximum emergency system to guard against the virus spreading after finding a person with symptoms in Kaesong city, near South Korea. (AP)