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North Korea lifted the mask mandate and eased viral restrictions, state media reported on Saturday, days after leader Kim Jong Un declared “victory” over Covid-19.
The announcement comes after Pyongyang earlier this week accused Seoul of the Covid-19 outbreak in the north and threatened to “annihilate” South Korean authorities, if necessary.
The viral restrictions were eased because “the crisis of public fitness created in the country has been completely deactivated and its entire territory has been reshaped into a territory free of malignant viruses in the shortest time imaginable,” the Official Pyongyang News Agency (KCNA) reported.
“The mandatory mask dressed in a landmark has been lifted in all regions, frontline spaces and border towns and counties, as the entire country has been remodeled into an epidemic-free zone,” KCNA said.
North Korea declared a “brilliant victory” over Covid earlier this week, just months after pronouncing its first cases in May.
Social distancing and other anti-virus measures for border regions have also been lifted.
But other people with symptoms of respiratory illness were asked to wear masks and North Koreans were asked to “remain vigilant” against “abnormal things,” referring to the South’s propaganda leaflets.
Despite a ban that went into effect in 2021, South Korean activists have flown balloons with propaganda leaflets and dollars for years over the border, which the North has long protested about.
Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un’s tough sister, on Wednesday blamed those activities for the covid outbreak in the north and vowed “deadly” retaliation against Seoul.
Kim Yo Jong also revealed that the leader himself became ill from the outbreak and suffered a “high fever. “
North Korea has recorded around 4. 8 million cases of “fever”, although it identified only a fraction of them as covid, since last April, with only 74 deaths, according to KCNA.
Experts, adding the World Health Organization, have long had covid statistics from Pyongyang and claim to have controlled the outbreak.
North Korea has one of the worst fitness systems in the world, with poorly stocked hospitals and few extensive care units, experts say.
It is not believed to have vaccinated any of its 26 million inhabitants, possibly obtaining vaccines from China, Seoul-based online site NK News reported.
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