In a striking speech before thousands of North Koreans, leader Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, said her brother suffered a fever while guiding the country to victory over the coronavirus and blamed rival South Korea for the outbreak, vowing “deadly” retaliation.
A politically powerful official in charge of inter-Korean relations, she glorified her brother’s leadership during the outbreak in her speech Wednesday at a national meeting where he jubilantly described the country’s widely disputed success over the virus as an “amazing miracle” in global public health.
North Korea’s statements about its outbreak are widely believed to be manipulated to help Kim Jong Un maintain absolute authority. But experts believe the victory announcement signals his intention to move to other priorities and are concerned his sister’s remarks portend a provocation, which might include nuclear or missile tests or even border skirmishes.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday that Kim Jong Un declared victory over COVID-19 and ordered an easing of preventive measures just three months after the country first acknowledged an outbreak.
In her first known televised speech, his sister said he suffered a fever and glorified his “epoch-making” leadership. In a dubious claim, she accused South Korea of spreading COVID-19 to North Korea’s largely unvaccinated populace, saying the initial infections were caused by “leaflets, banknotes, awful booklets” and other items flown across the border by anti-North Korean activists in the South.
North Korea first suggested in July that its COVID-19 outbreak began in people who had contact with objects carried by balloons launched from South Korea — a questionable claim that appeared to be an attempt to blame its rival.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, expressed strong regret over North Korea’s “extremely disrespectful and threatening comments” based on “ridiculous claims.”
A senior South Korean presidential office official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in a background briefing, said Seoul is preparing for various possible North Korean provocations, including a test detonation of a nuclear device.
Since North Korea acknowledged its coronavirus outbreak in May, it has reported about 4.8 million “fever cases” in its population of 26 million but only identified a fraction of those as COVID-19. The country, which likely lacks test kits and other public health tools, has claimed the outbreak has been slowing for weeks and that just 74 people have died.