(VOVWORLD) -North Korean leader Kim Jong-un convened an emergency politburo meeting after a person suspected of having COVID-19 returned from South Korea.
 North Korean leaders Kim Jong-un (C) at a meeting in Pyongyang, North Korea. (Photo: YONHAP / VNA ) |
The person illegally crossed the border on July 19, state media said on Sunday.
If confirmed, it would be the first case officially acknowledged by North Korean authorities.
Kim declared a state of emergency and imposed a lockdown on the border city of Kaesong, calling it a “critical situation in which the vicious virus could be said to have entered the country.”
According to KCNA, the person who defected to South Korea three years ago returned across the fortified border that divides the two Koreas with symptoms that suggested COVID-19.
It said that the suspected case, all people in Kaesong city who had contact with this person, and those who visited city in the last 5 days have been put in quarantine.