3 years ago
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called an emergency meeting after an individual suspected of having COVID-19 illegally crossed the border from South Korea, state media said on Sunday.
If the person is officially declared a virus patient, it would be the first confirmed coronavirus case acknowledged by Pyongyang. North Korea has so far maintained that the country has recorded not a single case of coronavirus on its territory, a claim questioned by outside experts.
According to state news agency KCNA, Kim convened an emergency meeting on Saturday, after imposing a preemptive lockdown on the border town of Kaesong on Friday. It quoted Kim as saying that there was "a critical situation in which the vicious virus could be said to have entered the country."
The individual "suspected to have been infected with the vicious virus" defected to the south three years ago and illegally crossed the heavily guarded military demarcation line separating the two countries on July 19, KCNA said.
The agency said that "several medical check-ups" produced an "uncertain result" and that the individual was put under strict quarantine in the border town of Kaesong as a first step. It wasn't clear whether the individual was specifically tested for COVID-19.
