North Korea under lockdown after first acknowledged Covid cases in capital

North Korea has imposed a nationwide lockdown to control its first confirmed cases of Covid-19 after holding for more than two years to a widely doubted claim of a perfect record in keeping out the virus.

Tests on an unspecified number of people with fevers in the capital, Pyongyang, confirmed they were infected with the Omicron variant, AP reported, citing the official Korean Central News Agency.

Leader Kim Jong-un called for a thorough lockdown and said workplaces should be isolated to prevent the virus from spreading, the agency said.

North Korea has refused vaccines offered by the UNbacked Covax distribution programme, possibly because those have international monitoring requirements.

There is no official record of any North Koreans having been vaccinated, the World Health Organisation said.

“There has been the biggest emergency incident in the country, with a hole in our emergency quarantine front, that has been kept safely over the past two years and three months since February 2020,” the KCNA said.

Prof Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul said the swift action taken suggested the situation was urgent.

“Externally, there may be an indirect message of the need for co-operating with the international community if it proves to be difficult to overcome on its own,” Mr Yang said.

A South Korean website that monitors activities in Pyongyang said this week that residents had been told to return home and remain indoors because of a “national problem”, without being given details.

Shortly after the announcement, North Korea fired three ballistic missiles towards the sea off its east coast, South Korea and Japan said.

Three short-range ballistic missiles were fired from the Sunan area of Pyongyang, from where it had launched its largest intercontinental ballistic missile three weeks earlier, South Korea said.

The missiles flew approximately 360 kilometres, reaching an altitude of 90km, it said. The US military said the launch did not pose an immediate threat to it or its allies.

Japanese Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi said the missiles landed outside Japan’s territorial waters.

“Missile launches when the invasion of Ukraine is taking place is unacceptable,” he said.

It was the first launch since the inauguration of conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who has signalled a hard line against the North’s weapons development.

The World Health Organisation says there is no official record of any North Koreans having been vaccinated