SEOUL – Isolated North Korea has continued to claim a perfect record in keeping out the coronavirus in its latest report to the World Health Organization.
At the beginning of the pandemic more than a year ago, North Korea described its efforts to keep out the virus as a “matter of national existence.” It shut its borders, banned tourists and jetted out diplomats.
It still severely limits cross-border traffic and has quarantined tens of thousands of people who have shown symptoms. But it still says it has found no case of COVID-19, a widely doubted claim given its poor health infrastructure and a porous border with China, its economic lifeline.