Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein
In an interview with Kyodo earlier this year:
Pak Myong Su, president of North Korea’s State Hygienic Control Board, made the remark in an interview with Kyodo News and other foreign media outlets.
“If such a virus spreads in our country with a small population and a small territory, a serious disaster could not be avoided, in which thousands or tens of thousands of people are deprived of their lives,” Pak said in Pyongyang.
In mid-March, Gen. Robert Abrams, the commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, said at a press conference that North Korea “is a closed-off nation, so we can’t say emphatically that they have cases, but we’re fairly certain they do.”
South Korean media have also reported that many North Koreans have died from the pneumonia-causing virus currently sweeping the world.
Late last month, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi told reporters in Tokyo, “If there is no infected person in North Korea, which is contiguous with China and South Korea, it is extremely miraculous.”
Pak stressed that North Korea has stepped up measures to prevent a coronavirus outbreak, including cutting off traffic to and from China and Russia since earlier this year.
He added that citizens have been urged by the country’s health authorities to wear masks when they go outside.
(Source: “N. Korea has no infected people with new coronavirus: expert,” Mainichi/Kyodo, April 2nd, 2020.)
I’ve written here about why this is extremely unlikely to be true, bordering on the impossible.
Tags: Corona
