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| In this Oct. 10, 2014, file photo, activists promoting human rights for North Korea release balloons carrying leaflets condemning the North's regime in Paju, a South Korean city near the border with the North. North Korea on Friday blamed "alien things coming by wind" from South Korea for its outbreak of COVID-19. AP-Yonhap |
Pyongyang always finds something to blame for faults, expert says
By Jung Min-ho
North Korea has blamed balloons from South Korea for its COVID-19 outbreak, claiming that two people in the border area started showing symptoms after coming into contact with "alien things coming by wind" from the South.
Citing health authorities, the Korean Central News Agency, Pyongyang's official mouthpiece, reported Friday that a soldier, 18, and a child, 5, at Ipho-ri in Kumgang County were its first official COVID-19 patients. The broadcaster did not specify what they touched but, in a warning, it added that people living in border areas should be cautious of balloons and "the things attached to the balloons."
The warning is in line with North Korea's previous claims that its people should be careful of the virus carried by anti-regime leaflets, "other climate phenomena and balloons" from the South, pointing its finger at South Korea's human rights activists who often send such materials across the border.
In the days that followed, the broadcaster said, a sharp increase in fever cases was reported in the area before the disease spread to the rest of the country.
A former doctor from North Korea said he had anticipated such a reaction from Pyongyang since the very beginning of the outbreak.
"North Korean leaders always look for something to blame for their faults," Choi Jung-hoon, a former infectious disease doctor from North Korea, told The Korea Times. "It turned out to be the balloons this time."
He believes that the Omicron variant first got into North Korea from China, as Pyongyang was preparing a massive military parade scheduled for April 25.
"For an event of such a scale, North Korea needs lots of things and it usually gets them from China. The variant probably entered the North, as many crossed that border to transport the equipment and products they needed," Choi said. "But North Korea cannot blame China, its most important ally. So it probably wrote scenarios to create a different story."
In South Korea, many activist groups promoting human rights for North Korea are led by defectors from the North. Most recently, Fighters for a Free North Korea, a human rights group, said it sent 20 big balloons carrying painkillers, vitamin pills and masks on June 28 across the western inter-Korean border.
Citing the assessment of health authorities in the South and other countries, the Ministry of Unification dismissed the North's COVID-19 source claims as nonsensical.
"We believe there is no possibility of COVID-19 transmissions to North Korea from leaflets sent from the South," Cha Duck-chul, a deputy spokesman for the ministry, said during a press briefing.
Meanwhile, the North's daily number of suspected new COVID-19 cases remained below 5,000 for the second consecutive day. More than 4,570 people showed symptoms of fever over a 24-hour period until 6 p.m. the previous day, according to the broadcaster.
So far, the total number of suspected COVID cases has reached 4.74 million, with more than 4.73 million recovered and at least 8,130 in treatment, it added.
After the daily fever count started showing a downward trend following peaking at over 392,920 on May 15, the Ministry of Unification said last month that the North could announce the end of the COVID-19 pandemic there soon.
But given that no country ― not even China ― makes such a claim, Park said he believes that North Korea will maintain for a while that "the virus is under control" without declaring that the outbreak is officially over.
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