North Korea has blamed balloons sent across its southern border by groups of defectors for its Covid-19 outbreak in an apparent attempt to pin the blame on its neighbor.
After two years of insisting it had not registered a single case of the virus, the North admitted its first infections on May 12, sparking fears of a public health disaster in the impoverished country.
On Friday, the country reported that 4,570 people were newly showing fever symptoms, bringing the total number of cases to 4.74 million. Health officials are more likely to speak of fever symptoms than Covid-19, apparently due to a lack of testing kits. The North has reported just 73 deaths.
The official KCNA news agency said on Friday that an 18-year-old soldier and a five-year-old child who touched “unidentified materials” in eastern Kumgang County in early April showed symptoms and later tested positive for Covid-19.
“A large increase in fever cases was observed among their contacts, and it was the first time a group of feverish individuals appeared in the area,” it said.
However, the first time groups of North Korean defectors are said to have sent balloons across the border this year was from the western Gimpo region in late April.
KCNA warned citizens to “be vigilant about foreign things coming into the areas along the demarcation line and borders by wind and other climatic phenomena and balloons.”
While the report does not name South Korea, defector activists there use balloons to send anti-regime leaflets and humanitarian aid across the country’s heavily armed border.
In response, the South’s Unification Ministry said on Friday there was “no way” the coronavirus could have reached the North via balloons.
Experts were skeptical of Pyongyang’s claim. “It’s scientifically hard to believe North Korea’s claim because the chances of the virus spreading through objects are pretty low,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the risk of people catching it through contact with contaminated surfaces or objects is generally considered low, although it’s not impossible.
The regime has publicly offered no more plausible explanation – that Covid entered North Korea after it resumed cross-border trade with China.
“If they had concluded that the virus originated in China, they would have had to tighten quarantine measures in the border area, which would mean another setback for North Korea-China trade,” said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at the Institute of Far East Studies at Kyungnam University.
Reports from North Korean authorities suggest the country has avoided a catastrophic outbreak, though it’s impossible to independently verify official statistics on cases and deaths.
Pyongyang has turned down external offers of humanitarian aid, including Covid-19 vaccines and medical supplies, to help it through the pandemic and accused the US of using the gesture to distract from its “hostile” policy towards the North.
North Korea’s foreign ministry said the US was disingenuous in offering assistance while continuing to conduct military exercises and pushing for more sanctions in response to the regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.