SEOUL,May 18,2022:North Korean leader Kim Jong Un slammed his country’s response to its first confirmed COVID-19 outbreak as immature, accusing government officials of inadequacies and inertia as fever cases swept the country, state media reported on Wednesday.
North Korea reported 232,880 more people with fever symptoms, and six more deaths after country revealed the COVID outbreak last week. It did not say how many people had tested positive for COVID-19.
Presiding over a politburo meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party on Tuesday, Kim said the “immaturity in the state capacity for coping with the crisis” increased the “complexity and hardships” in fighting the pandemic, according to KCNA.
Since its first acknowledgement of the COVID-19 outbreak, the North has reported 1.72 million patients with fever symptoms, including 62 deaths as of Tuesday evening.
Yet the North also said the country’s virus situation was taking a “favourable turn,” adding the party meeting discussed “maintaining the good chance in the overall epidemic prevention front.”
The report did not elaborate on what grounds the North came to such a positive assessment. The country has not started mass vaccinations and has limited testing capabilities, leaving many experts concerned it may be difficult to assess how widely and rapidly the disease is spreading.
