SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – In a powerful speech to thousands of North Koreans, leader Kim Jong Un’s sister said he suffered from a fever while leading the country to victory over the coronavirus. She blamed rival South Korea for the outbreak and vowed “deadly” retribution.
Kim Yo Jong, a powerful official in charge of inter-Korean relations, glorified her brother’s leadership during the outbreak in her speech at a national gathering on Wednesday, where he hailed the country’s widely disputed success over the virus as a ” wondrous miracle” called health care worldwide.
It is widely believed that North Korea’s statements about its outbreak were rigged to help Kim Jong Un maintain absolute authority. But experts believe the victory announcement signals his intention to turn his attention to other priorities and are concerned his sister’s comments point to a provocation that could involve nuclear or missile tests or even border skirmishes.
Korea’s official North Central News Agency said Thursday Kim Jong Un had declared victory over COVID-19 and ordered an easing of preventive measures, just three months after the country first acknowledged an outbreak.
In her first known televised speech, his sister said he had a fever and praised his “epochal” leadership. In a dubious claim, she accused South Korea of spreading COVID-19 among North Korea’s largely unvaccinated population, saying the initial infections were caused by “leaflets, banknotes, horrific pamphlets” and other items distributed by anti-North Korean activists about the border were flown the south.
North Korea first suggested in July that its COVID-19 outbreak began in people who had been in contact with objects carried by balloons launched from South Korea – a questionable claim that appeared to be an attempt to trick its rival into the to blame.
South Korea’s Ministry of Unification, which is responsible for inter-Korean affairs, expressed deep regret at North Korea’s “extremely disrespectful and threatening comments” based on “ridiculous allegations”.
A senior official at South Korea’s presidential office, speaking on condition of anonymity in a background briefing, said Seoul was preparing for various possible North Korean provocations, including a test detonation of a nuclear device.
Since North Korea acknowledged its coronavirus outbreak in May, it has reported about 4.8 million “fever cases” in its population of 26 million, but only identified a fraction of those as COVID-19. The country, which likely lacks testing kits and other public health tools, has claimed the outbreak has been slowing for weeks and that only 74 people have died.
“Since we started conducting the maximum emergency anti-epidemic campaign (in May), the daily fever cases, which reached hundreds of thousands in the early days of the outbreak, have been reduced to below 90,000 a month later and are steadily decreasing, and not a single case of fever suspected to be linked to the nasty virus has been reported since July 29,” Kim said in his speech Wednesday during a national meeting where he presented a revised response to the pandemic announced.
“For a country that has not yet administered a single vaccination, our success in overcoming the spread of the disease in such a short time and restoring public health safety and restoring our nation to a clean virus-free zone is an astounding miracle that be included in world public health history,” KCNA quoted him as saying.
Kim’s declaring victory against the coronavirus suggests he may want to turn to other priorities, such as boosting the country’s battered and heavily sanctioned economy, which has been further damaged by pandemic border closures, or conducting a nuclear test, Leif- Eric Easley, Professor of International Studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul.
South Korean and US officials said North Korea could be preparing for its first nuclear test in five years amid a heated streak of weapons tests this year that included the first launches of ICBMs since 2017.
The provocative tests underscore Kim’s intention to advance his arsenal while squeezing the Biden administration over protracted negotiations in which he hopes to use his nuclear weapons as leverage for much-needed sanctions relaxation and security concessions, experts say.
Kim Yo Jong’s bellicose rhetoric suggests she will seek to blame South Korea for a resurgence of COVID-19 and also seeks to justify North Korea’s next military provocation, Easley said.
Activists in South Korea have for years flown balloons over the border to distribute hundreds of thousands of propaganda leaflets criticizing Kim’s regime. North Korea has often expressed anger at the activists and the South Korean government for failing to stop them.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Kim Yo Jong called the country’s virus outbreak a “hysterical farce” launched by South Korea to escalate the confrontation.
“(South Korean) puppets are still throwing leaflets and dirty objects into our territory. We have to face that hard,” she said. “We have already considered various countermeasure plans, but our countermeasure must be deadly retaliation.”
North Korean state television showed some people among thousands of viewers crying as she spoke about her brother’s fever – a reference that was not further explained. The crowd applauded and cheered as she promised North Korea would “eradicate not only the virus but also (South Korean) government agencies” if the “enemies continue dangerous actions that could introduce the virus to our republic.”
While Kim Yo Jong has made many speeches and statements in recent years as one of the most powerful members of her brother’s leadership circle, Thursday marked the first time North Korean media broadcast the full video and audio of one of her speeches, South Korea’s reunification said the Ministry. State media’s prominence of her speech reflects her rising status and may be aimed at emphasizing the threat directed at South Korea.
In 2020, Kim Yo Jong ran a pressure campaign that saw North Korea blow up an empty South Korean-built liaison office on its territory and threatened to end a 2018 military deal to ease border tensions in an angry response to South Korean leafleting campaigns. In 2014, North Korea fired at propaganda balloons flying toward its territory, and South Korea returned fire, although there were no casualties.
North Korea’s claim about the origin of the outbreak contradicts outside experts, who believe the Omicron variant spread when the country briefly reopened its border with China to cargo traffic in January, and continued to increase after a military parade and other major events in Pyongyang . its capital, in April.
In May, Kim Jong Un banned inter-city and inter-county travel to slow the spread of the virus. But he also stressed that his economic goals should be met, which led to huge groups continuing to gather at agricultural, industrial, and construction sites.
At the virus meeting, Kim called for the easing of preventive measures and urged the nation to maintain vigilance and effective border controls, citing the spread of new coronavirus variants and monkeypox around the world.