SEOUL
\nNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared a \u201cshining victory\u201d over Covid-19 as his sister revealed he had fallen ill during the outbreak, which she blamed on Seoul, state media said on Thursday. Addressing a meeting of health workers and scientists, Kim announced a \u201cvictory… in the war against the malignant pandemic disease\u201d, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
\nKim fell ill with a \u201chigh fever\u201d but refused to rest while the country battled the virus, his powerful sister Kim Yo Jong told the meeting as officials in the audience wept, a KCTV broadcast showed.
\nThe isolated nation, which has maintained a rigid blockade since the start of the pandemic, confirmed an Omicron outbreak in the capital Pyongyang in May and activated a \u201cmaximum emergency epidemic prevention system\u201d.
\nNorth Korea refers to \u201cfever patients\u201d rather than \u201cCovid patients\u201d in case reports, apparently due to a lack of testing capacity. It has recorded nearly 4.8 million \u201cfever\u201d infections and just 74 deaths for an official fatality rate of 0.002 percent, according to state media. It has reported no new cases since July 29.
\nThis handling of the pandemic \u201cis a miracle unprecedented in the world\u2019s public health history,\u201d Kim said to thunderous applause, according to KCNA. \u201cThe victory gained by our people is a historic event.\u201d KCTV had never before aired a speech by \u201cfirst sister\u201d Kim Yo Jong, who made an impassioned address, the broadcast showed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SEOUL North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared a \u201cshining victory\u201d over Covid-19 as his sister revealed he had fallen ill during the outbreak, which she blamed on Seoul, state media said on Thursday. Addressing a meeting of health workers and scientists, Kim announced a \u201cvictory… in the war against the malignant pandemic disease\u201d, according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-277045","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n