Had Performed Lockdown And Mobilization Of Medical Teams, North Korea Confirmed Fever Cases Near The Chinese Border As Flu

Illustration of the handling of COVID-19 in North Korea. (Source: KCNA)

JAKARTA - North Korean authorities confirmed on Friday that a reported case of an unknown fever near the border with China was a case of flu, according to state media.

The day before, North Korea locked down the area and mobilized medical teams, after four cases of fever were reported from Ryanggang Province, but not COVID-19, in which the country declared victory this month.

"It was revealed that all fever patients in Ryanggang Province are flu patients," KCNA news agency reported on Friday, saying experts carried out clinical symptom observation, epidemiological link investigation and nucleic acid tests.

North Korea has never confirmed how many of its citizens have contracted COVID-19, presumably because it does not have the means to conduct widespread testing. Instead, it reported the daily number of fever patients, which numbered around 4.77 million, and said there had been no new cases since July 29.

On a separate occasion, KCNA conducted a Russian Government media interview with Moscow's ambassador to North Korea, Alexandr Matsegora, detailing the COVID situation in the isolated country.

Matsegora said he had raised the possibility that the virus originated in China, rather than through anti-North leaflets flown in from South Korea as Pyongyang denies.

However, North Koreans rejected that view, presenting data showing the northern region bordering China was far less affected by outbreaks than the south, he said, without providing a figure.

Reuters was unable to verify North Korean or Matsegora's statements, and most foreign embassies and international agencies have left the country because of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, Seoul's Unification Ministry, which handles cross-border relations, has dismissed Pyongyang's claims as unfounded, saying on Friday that a resurgence of COVID cannot be ruled out in the North.

Matsegora expressed concern over the escalation between the two Koreas, with North Korea vowing "deadly retaliation" for its leaflet-sending activity in the South, which Pyongyang said was "compared to the use of biochemical weapons."

"The situation on the Korean peninsula will be further aggravated by the COVID-19 issue as its momentum," he said.