North Korea has declared an emergency and a lockdown in a border town after a person suspected of having coronavirus returned from South Korea after illegally crossing the border, state media has said.
If confirmed, it would be the first case officially acknowledged by North Korean authorities.
Kim Jong-un convened an emergency politburo meeting in response to what he called a “critical situation in which the vicious virus could be said to have entered the country”, the North’s KCNA state news reported.
A person who defected to South Korea three years ago returned across the fortified border that divides the two Koreas to the town of Kaesong this month with symptoms of Covid-19, according to KCNA.
“An emergency event happened in Kaesong city where a runaway who went to the south three years ago, a person who is suspected to have been infected with the vicious virus, returned on 19 July after illegally crossing the demarcation line,” KCNA said.
The agency did not say if the person had been tested, but said an “uncertain result was made from several medical checkups of the secretion of that person’s upper respiratory organ and blood”, prompting officials to quarantine the person and investigate anyone he may have been in contact with.