North Korea had previously claimed a perfect record in keeping out COVID-19, a claim widely doubted by outside experts.
Thursday as leader Kim Jong Un called for raising COVID-19 preventive measures to maximum levels.
In this photo provided by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, attends a meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party in Pyongyang, North Korea Thursday, May 12, 2022. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified.
North Korea's announcement of the infections came after NK News, a North Korea-focused news site, cited unidentified sources who said authorities had imposed a lockdown on Pyongyang residents. South Korea's government said it couldn't confirm the report. North Korea's previous coronavirus-free claim had been disputed by many foreign experts. But South Korean officials have said North Korea had likely avoided a huge outbreak, in part because it instituted strict virus controls almost from the start of the pandemic.
North Korea in January tentatively reopened railroad freight traffic between its border town of Sinuiju and China's Dandong, but China announced a halt to the trade last month as it deals with a spread of COVID-19 in Dandong.
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