Thousands quarantined in wake of N Korea’s ‘first case’

NORTH Korea has quarantined thousands of people as the country’s response to its first suspected coronavirus case reinforces doubt about its longstanding claim to be virus-free.

Kim Jong-un last week declared a state of emergency and imposed a lockdown on the city of Kaesong after a defector who crossed back over the South Korean border reportedly displayed suspected Covid-19 symptoms.

Experts on the secretive state said Pyongyang’s claim that the virus may have leaked in via a returning defector fit the North’s traditional narrative of blaming the South for its troubles.

The South Korean military did confirm that the man had swum across the border from the western island of Gwanghwa after crawling through a drain under barbed wire fences.

However, Seoul has insisted the 24-year-old man, who was facing a rape investigation, was not infected with the coronavirus. More than 3,600 people remain locked down in Kaesong while the authorities ship in food and other aid.

In a report to the World Health Organisation (WHO) North Korea said it had quarantined 64 first contacts of the returning defector and placed thousands more second contacts in staterun facilities for 40 days.

North Korea also informed the WHO of the suspected first case, saying the person was tested for Covid-19 but the results were inconclusive.

Earlier this year, North Korea introduced an entry ban and quarantining for all foreigners to keep the pandemic from wreaking havoc on its crumbling public health system and a population weakened by malnutrition.

But foreign experts are highly sceptical of North Korea’s insistence that it has no cases, despite having a long border with China.

Many are all but certain the virus has already entered North Korea, although the lack of access to the kingdom has hampered any conclusive results.