North Korea blamed its Covid-19 outbreak on “alien things” likely sent by balloon across its border with South Korea, saying a teenage soldier and a five-year-old girl in April were the first people in the country infected by coronavirus.
“The government does not see the possibility of the coronavirus entering the North through leaflets sent by South Korea’s side,” deputy ministry spokesman Cha Deok-cheol said at the briefing, referring to the balloons that also contained messages critical of Kim’s government. “While North Korea did not explicitly link the ‘alien things’ to the Covid relief sent by the defectors’ group, it certainly guides the citizens to think so,” said, director of the Center for North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute think tank in South Korea.North Korea, which shut borders at the start of the pandemic more than two years ago, reported in May that it had its first confirmed Covid case.