(Photo: KCNA/via REUTERS/Third party image/REUTERS unable to independently verify image/No third party sales/South Korea out.)
North Korea called for more stringent and comprehensive steps to ensure its citizens' safety from the rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic, during a political bureau meeting of the central committee of the ruling coalition, chaired by its leader Kim Jong Un, state media announced on Sunday.
The Korean Central News Agency disclosed that the pandemic has triggered major roadblocks to the country's economic activities, but added that it has maintained a very strong anti-crisis plan thanks to the government's rigid "top-class emergency anti-epidemic measures and mandatory national protective strategy."
Global experts remain suspicious of the claim of North Korea that it is free from the epidemic considering that the high number of infections in neighboring nations and how the country trades through cross-border smuggling of goods.
Experts claimed that the hermit state is especially vulnerable to the virus because of its poor healthcare system and Pyongyang has been accused of covering up an outbreak by defectors.
The World Health Organization reported that as of April 2, more than 700 people - 11 foreigners and 698 locals - have been subjected to tests for Covid-19, while over 24,000 people have released from isolation.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, a separate KCNA article said Kim Jong Un was overseeing an exercise of the country's attack jets. Kim said he was satisfied with the drill but raised significant tasks to further enhance the war effectiveness of North Korea's military capability, the report stated.
Images published by state media revealed that none of the committee members attending the conference, including Kim Jong Un, were wearing face masks, nor were they seated very far apart from each other.
A report also bared that Kim Yo Jong, the sister and senior government official of Kim Jong Un, has been elected as an alternate member of the ruling bloc's Central Committee Political Bureau.
After the first coronavirus cases were detected there, North Korea shut down its borders with neighboring China in January. Pyongyang also placed thousands of its own people, including hundreds of foreigners and diplomats - into quarantine and ramped up its disinfection campaign.
Almost every other nation has reported cases of the dreaded disease. South Korea reported 32 new positive coronavirus cases by end of Saturday, pushing its numbers up to 10,512, with three more confirmed deaths for a total of 214, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disclosed.
According to a survey by Johns Hopkins University, confirmed cases of infection in 193 countries and territories currently surpass one 1.7 million, including more than 108,000 fatalities.
