Pyongyang expects the international community to condemn the actions of Seoul, which is allegedly involved in the recent outbreak of COVID-19, North Korean Ambassador to Moscow Sin Hong Chol said on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th August, 2022) Pyongyang expects the international community to condemn the actions of Seoul, which is allegedly involved in the recent outbreak of COVID-19, North Korean Ambassador to Moscow Sin Hong Chol said on Thursday.
In early July, North Korea said that the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country started in the village of Ipho near the South Korean border. The index cases are believed to be an 18-year-old soldier and a 5-year-old child, who reportedly touched "alien things," possibly leaflets and other materials that are commonly sent by South Korean activists over the border.
"We hope that the international community, which values justice and conscience, will raise the voice of condemnation of the anti-national and anti-human atrocities of the South Korean authorities and urge the South Korean authorities to recognize their responsibility, punish those responsible and in no case throw dirty objects into the North Korean territory of North Korea," the ambassador told reporters. "It is South Korea that is the main reason for the spread of the stealth omicron strain in our country and neighboring states recently."
According to the ambassador, scientific facts confirmed the possibility of the spread of coronavirus through contact with objects, on the surface of which the virus remains active for some time.
In May, Pyongyang announced the first wave of COVID-19 cases in the country, as several citizens tested positive for the Omicron BA.2 variant. According to the Korean Central news Agency, an "unfamiliar fever" has been spreading in the country since late April. The fever is believed to be COVID-19, but the exact number of patients remains unknown.
Last week, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un announced the victory over the coronavirus outbreak in North Korea. The same day, the leader's sister, director of a Workers' Party of Korea Central Committee department Kim Yo Jong, accused South Korea of bringing coronavirus into North Korea, saying that Pyongyang would destroy the South Korean authorities if they provoke the penetration of the virus into North Korea.
The Korean peninsula is still formally in a state of war since the nations signed an armistice, not a peace treaty to end the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953. The armistice was signed by the commanders of North Korea and China on one side, and the US under the United Nations on the other. North Korea has since made several proposals to sign a peace treaty, but all of them having been rejected by the US.
