North Korea blames Covid-19 outbreak on people touching 'alien things' sent over the border

North Korea has claimed "alien things" that came over the border from South Korea are responsible for its Covid-19 outbreak.

In what it called “an emergency instruction,” the country's epidemic prevention centre ordered officials to “to vigilantly deal with alien things coming by wind and other climate phenomena and balloons” along the inter-Korean border.

Anyone finding “alien things” was told to notify authorities immediately so they could be removed.

The reports did not specify what the “alien things” were, but balloons have been used by defectors and critics of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for years to distribute propaganda leaflets condemning his government's policies over the border from South Korea. North Korea has also claimed the virus could spread through falling snow or migratory birds.

North Korea said it had kept the virus from its borders during the worst of the global pandemic. While the claim was largely doubted, its strict border closure, large-scale quarantines and propaganda that stressed anti-virus controls as a matter of “national existence” may have staved off a huge outbreak until recently.

Despite a strict lockdown - its pandemic-related restrictions even included strict bans on entering seawater - North Korea's first - and worst - acknowledged outbreak of the virus has spread rapidly through the largely unvaccinated population since May. The country has since reported about 4.7 million cases out of its 26 million population but only identified a fraction of them as Covid-19. It says 73 people have died, but both figures are believed to be manipulated by North Korea.

Kim's government has faced criticism for its handling of the pandemic with some laying the blame at his feet after the leader pressed ahead with a military parade and other large-scale events in Pyongyang in April, organised to boost public loyalty to the ruling Kim family amid economic hardships, that allowed the virus to spread further.

A major outbreak of the virus would put North Korea's broken health care system under considerable strain especially as many of its 26 million people are believed to be unvaccinated, and malnourishment and other conditions of poverty are widespread.

The country turned down millions of Covid vaccine doses offered by the UN-backed Covax distribution programme.

South Korea’s Unification Ministry said there was no chance South Korean balloons might have spread the virus to North Korea.

Ties between the Koreas remain strained amid a long-running stalemate in US-led diplomacy on persuading North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions in return for economic and political benefits. South Korean and US officials have recently said North Korea is ready for its first nuclear test in five years amid its torrid run of weapons tests this year.

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