In a shocking speech to thousands of North Koreans, leader Kim Jong Un’s sister said she suffered from fever as she led the country to victory over the coronavirus. He blamed rival South Korea for the outbreak and vowed “deadly” retaliation.
Kim Yo Jong, a tough official on inter-Korean relations, glorified his brother’s leadership in the outbreak in his speech Wednesday at a national assembly where he described with jubilation the country’s widely contested good fortune over the coronavirus as an “incredible miracle” in global public health.
North Korea’s claims about its outbreak are widely believed to have been manipulated to aid Kim Jong Un’s absolute authority. just come with nuclear or missile tests or even skirmishes on the border.
North Korea’s official Central News Agency said Thursday that Kim declared victory over COVID-19 and ordered a rest of preventive measures 3 months after the country first identified an outbreak.
In her first known televised address, her sister said she suffered from fever and glorified her “old” leadership. The initial infections were caused through “leaflets, banknotes, ugly leaflets” and other pieces that crossed the border by air through anti-North activists in the South.
North Korea first reported in July that its outbreak began in other people who had been in contact with items transported via balloons brought in from South Korea.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry, which manages inter-Korean affairs, spoke deeply about North Korea’s “extremely disrespectful and threatening comments” based on “ridiculous claims. “
A senior official in South Korea’s presidential office, who spoke on condition of anonymity at a briefing, said Seoul was preparing for several imaginable provocations by North Korea, adding a nuclear detonation test.
Since North Korea declared its coronavirus outbreak in May, it has reported 4. 8 million “fever cases” in its population of 26 million, but has only known a fraction of them as COVID-19. The country, which likely lacks control kits and other public fitness tools, said the outbreak had slowed for weeks and only 74 other people had died.
“Since we began conducting the maximum emergency anti-epidemic crusade [in May], daily fever cases that reached thousands in the first days of the outbreak have dropped to less than 90,000 a month later and have decreased frequently, and not a single case of fever suspected to be related to the malefic virus has been reported since July 29. ” Kim said in his speech Wednesday at a national assembly where he announced a revised reaction to the pandemic.
“For a country that has not yet administered a vaccine shot to single people, our good fortune to overcome the spread of the disease in such a short time and restore public physical security and make our country a clean, virus-free zone is a miracle that would be recorded in the global history of public fitness. ” KCNA said quoting him.
For Kim, pointing to victory against the coronavirus suggests he move on to other priorities, such as boosting the country’s damaged and heavily sanctioned economy, which has been further weakened by the closure of pandemic borders, or conducting a nuclear test, Leif said. -Eric Easley, professor of foreign studies at Seoul Ewha Women’s University.
South Korean and U. S. officials said North Korea could prepare for its first nuclear control in five years amid a torrid series of arms controls this year that included its first intercontinental ballistic missile launches since 2017.
The provocative tests underscore Kim’s goal of increasing his arsenal as they press Biden’s management over long-standing negotiations in which he hopes to use his nuclear weapons as leverage for much-needed sanctions relief and security concessions, experts say.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Kim Yo Jong presented the outbreak of the virus in the country as a “hysterical farce” across South Korea to escalate the confrontation.
“[South Korean] puppets throw leaflets and dirty items into our territory. We will have to counter it firmly,” he said. We have already thought of various countermeasure plans, but our countermeasure will have to be a deadly retaliation. “
North Korean state television showed others in the audience of thousands of other people crying as he talked about his brother’s fever, a reference that is no longer explained. The crowd applauded and applauded as they vowed that North Korea would “eradicate not only the virus yet but also [South Korean] government authorities” if the “enemies continue to act with harmful tactics that can bring the virus to our republic. “
While Kim Yo Jong has made speeches and statements in recent years as one of the toughest members of his brother’s leadership circle, Thursday was the first time North Korean media broadcast the full video and audio of one of his speeches, the unification of South Korea. . says the ministry. The highlight of his speech via state media reflects his growing prestige and may be meant to highlight the risk directed against South Korea.
In 2020, Kim Yo Jong led a tension crusade in which North Korea blew up an empty liaison office built across South Korea on its territory and threatened to end a 2018 military deal to reduce border tensions, in a furious reaction to South Korea’s leaflet crusades. In 2014, North Korea fired propaganda balloons flying into its territory and South Korea retaliated, there were no casualties.
North Korea’s claim about the origin of the outbreak contradicts outside experts, who spread the Omicron variant when the country briefly reopened its border with China to freight traffic in January, and rose further after a military parade and other large-scale events in Pyongyang, its capital, in April.
In May, Kim Jong Un banned movement between towns and counties to curb the spread of the virus. But he was also pressured to achieve his economic goals, which meant that massive teams continued to gather at agricultural, commercial and structural sites.
At the assembly on the virus, Kim called for preventive measures to be relaxed and for the country to maintain effective surveillance and border controls, bringing out the global spread of new variants of the coronavirus and monkeypox.
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