Kim Jong-un orders lockdowns

NORTH Korea confirmed it had Covid19 cases for the first time yesterday and declared a “serious emergency”, with leader Kim Jong-un appearing in a mask on television for the first time to order nationwide lockdowns.

Hours after the announcement – the first time the nuclear-armed country has ever admitted to a case of Covid-19 – Seoul’s military said it had detected three short-range ballistic missiles fired from near Pyongyang.

Earlier yesterday, North Korea said it had moved into “maximum emergency epidemic prevention system” after patients sick with fever in Pyongyang tested positive for the “omicron BA.2 variant” of Covid-19.

Kim, wearing a mask on state television for the first time, oversaw an emergency politburo meeting to discuss the outbreak and “called on all the cities and counties of the whole country to thoroughly lock down their areas”. North Korea’s crumbling health infrastructure would struggle to deal with an outbreak, with its 25 million people not vaccinated, experts say.