The North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un has chaired a meeting of the Political Bureau regarding the response to the coronavirus or COVID-19, pointing out few faults in the efforts to halt the spread of the deadly novel virus, as reported by the state media on Wednesday.
This comes after the recent shooting of a South Korean official and apparent during of the body as a measure to prevent COVID-19 spread. "The meeting pointed out some faults found in preventing the inroads of the malignant virus and had an in-depth study and discussion about the issues on further intensifying the state emergency anti-epidemic work", the Chongnyon Jonwi newspaper reported.
COVID-19 Situation in North Korea
The 18th meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of North Korea that was held on Tuesday came following the troops of North Korea shot dead a South Korean fisheries official, who was missing while on duty near the South-North border. The man was believed to have tried to defect to NorthKorea by jumping into the sea.
The Supreme Leader subsequently apologized to Seoul and promised that he will take steps for avoiding such kind of incidents in the future. The meeting of the Political Bureau also warned against "self-complacency, carelessness, irresponsibility and slackness" in the efforts to curb the spread of the virus and called for maintaining a 'steel strong' implementation of the coronavirus measures in the nation.
Moreover, the Political Bureau also looked into the events that took place on the 75th anniversary of the party's founding and progress made by the country in coping up with the effects of the typhoons that took place in September. The topic of discussion in the meeting raises questions about whether North Korea is suffering from a coronavirus outbreak as the country has been claiming that it has been tackling the virus cases properly. However, there have been reports regarding cases in the country.
