Kim speaks of ‘great crisis’ due to virus prevention lapses in North Korea

Seoul, Jun 30 (EFE).- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said there has been a “great crisis” due to lapses in implementing national measures to battle the “worldwide health crisis,” according to state media reports Wednesday.

He referred to the country’s situation in its fight against the pandemic, and after the regime has said that it has not registered a single case of Covid-19 and applied strict border restrictions that affect trade and the movement of people to avoid the introduction of the virus.

“Senior officials in charge of important state affairs neglected the implementation of the important decisions of the Party on taking organizational, institutional, material, scientific and technological measures as required by the prolonged state emergency epidemic prevention campaign associated with the worldwide health crisis,” state news agency KCNA quoted Kim as saying during a meeting of the North Korean politburo of the Workers’ Party held Tuesday night.

This “caused a crucial case of creating a great crisis in ensuring the security of the state and safety of the people and entailed grave consequences.”

Kim pointed to the “lack of ability and irresponsibility of cadres” as the “major factor braking and hindering the implementation of the important tasks,” and called for “a more fierce Party-wide campaign against ideological faults and all sorts of negative elements being exposed among the cadres.”

KCNA said a “report” on these errors was discussed during the politburo meeting, although it did not elaborate on the incident or the Covid-19 situation in the country.

Due to the pandemic, North Korea closed its borders in January 2020.

In the last part of that year, the country tightened restrictions even more, so that its imports from China (from where it obtains 90 percent of what it buys from abroad) fell to a minimum and food shortages affecting the country worsened.

Cross-border trade appeared to rebound in March and April thanks to the establishment of border logistics centers to disinfect imported goods, according to regime observers.

Pyongyang informed the World Health Organization earlier this month that it has tested more than 30,000 people in the country without detecting a single Covid-19 infection, according to the international body. EFE

co-ahg/tw