The pandemic situation in North Korea is being controlled and is improving, state media Korean Central News Agency reported Sunday, citing a meeting overseen by leader Kim Jong Un. Officials reported the latest number of daily “fever” cases rose by 980.
More than 89,500 cases were recorded for the 24 hours ending May 28 at 6 p.m. KCNA said. The country has reported a total of 3.44 million infections since the end of April, with 94% of them having recovered, according to the report.
Kim has declared a state of emergency and mobilized troops to try contain the spread of what the state calls a “malicious” epidemic. The North Korean leader led a meeting of the Political Bureau of the country’s powerful Workers’ Party of Korea to assess the outbreak, KCNA reported, without saying when it took place.
“It made a positive evaluation of the pandemic situation being controlled and improved across the country,” according to KCNA.
The report comes after China reported new COVID-19 cases in cities bordering North Korea. The U.S. has offered to provide COVID-19 vaccines to North Korea, but President Joe Biden said Pyongyang has not responded to the offer.
