Seoul's new government of President Yoon Suk-you for seeking to lift a 2020 ban on those campaigns, calling it an "invariable principal enemy." "We can no longer overlook the uninterrupted influx of rubbish from South Korea," she said, threatening to "wipe out" Seoul's authorities. "Our countermeasure must be a deadly retaliatory one." South Korea's Unification Ministry expressed regret over North Korea's claim that letters from defectors were responsible for the COVID outbreak and the threats Pyongyang made, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
RESTRICTIONS REMOVED Analysts said although the authoritarian North has used the pandemic to tighten social controls, its victory declaration could be a prelude to restoring trade hampered by border lockdowns and other restrictions.
Observers have also said it may clear the way for the North to conduct its first nuclear weapon test since 2017. "The meeting seems primarily aimed at fostering unity among the people, but could also be to send a message to China that they're COVID-free and ready to restart trade," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.
North Korea's official death rate of 0.0016%, or 74 out of some 4.77 million, is an "unprecedented miracle," anti-COVID chief Ri Chung Gil told the meeting.