Seoul: North Korea claims the nation’s first COVID-19 outbreak started with sufferers touching “alien issues” close to the border with South Korea, apparently shifting blame to the neighbour for the wave of infections within the remoted nation.
Asserting outcomes of an investigation on Friday, the North ordered folks to “vigilantly cope with alien issues coming by wind and different local weather phenomena and balloons within the areas alongside the demarcation line and borders,” the official KCNA information company stated.
A balloon bearing leaflets and a banner exhibiting a picture of South Korea’s president-elect Yoon Suk Yeol is launched from the border city of Gimpo, South Korea, on April 25.Credit score:Fighters For A Free North Korea/AP
The company didn’t straight point out South Korea, however North Korean defectors and activists have for many years flown balloons from the South throughout the closely fortified border, carrying leaflets and humanitarian help.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry, dealing with inter-Korean affairs, stated there was “no chance” of the virus coming into the North by way of leaflets despatched throughout the border.
In accordance with KCNA, an 18-year-old soldier and a five-year-old little one who contacted the unidentified supplies “in a hill round barracks and residential quarters” within the japanese county of Kumgang in early April confirmed signs and later examined optimistic for the coronavirus.
South Korean activists typically launch balloons carrying leaflets denouncing the North Korean chief.Credit score:AP
The KCNA stated all different fever instances reported within the nation till mid-April have been resulting from different ailments, however it didn’t elaborate.
“It’s laborious to imagine North Korea’s declare, scientifically talking, on condition that the opportunity of the virus spreading by way of objects is kind of low,” stated Yang Moo-jin, a professor on the College of North Korean Research in Seoul.
The US Centres for Illness Management and Prevention says the chance of individuals getting contaminated with COVID by way of contact with contaminated surfaces or objects is mostly thought-about low, although it’s attainable.
