THE NEW YORK TIMES: The country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, ordered a national lockdown after a subvariant of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus was found in the capital.
SEOUL — North Korea on Thursday reported its first outbreak of the coronavirus, declaring a “maximum emergency” and ordering all cities and counties in the nation of 25 million to lock down to fight the spread.
It was an abrupt change for a secretive country that had long insisted it had no cases of the virus that first emerged in neighboring China more than two years ago. Outside experts had been skeptical, however, citing a lack of extensive Covid testing and the North’s threadbare public health system.
The danger posed by an outbreak is greater in North Korea than in most other nations because most of its people remain unvaccinated. Outside health experts have long questioned the North’s ability to fight a large-scale outbreak although its regime is capable of imposing totalitarian control on residents’ movement. » | Choe Sang-Hun | Published: Wednesday, May 11, 2022; Updated: Thursday, May 12, 2022
