North Korea Lifts Sweeping Lockdown After One Day, Yonhap Says
(Bloomberg) -- North Korea on Thursday lifted a temporary lockdown it had imposed a day earlier after reports from across the country of cases of fevers of unknown origins, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing multiple South Korean government officials.
The brief lockdown followed a military parade last week marking the anniversary of the founding of its army. Pyongyang also held festivities a few weeks ago for the 110th birth anniversary of state founder Kim Il Sung -- the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong Un -- where the country organized mass events despite maintaining strict Covid-19 border closures in place since early 2020.
It was unclear which parts of the country were under the daylong lockdown. There is speculation, the fever cases were caused by waterborne diseases such as typhoid because a coronavirus infection would have prompted more stringent curbs, according to Yonhap.
A report in South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper cited multiple people familiar with situation, saying the spike in fever cases had resulted in rumors of a soldier testing positive for Covid in the North's Hamgyong province.Â
Last October, South Korean parliament's intelligence committee was briefed by the country's spy agency on the rampant spread of waterborne infectious diseases such as typhoid, a result of North Korea's lack of clean drinking water infrastructure and shortages of medical supplies due to prolonged border closures.
Coronavirus Newsletter: Deciphering North Korea's Covid Secrets
While North Korea says it has no coronavirus cases -- a claim doubted by U.S. and Japanese officials -- it has taken drastic containment measures that have worsened the regime's economic woes, including closing the border with its biggest trade partner, China.Â
Last week, China and North Korea closed down a rail freight service due to these measures, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. The rail link that passes through the Chinese border city of Dandong is Pyongyang's main link to the world's No. 2 economy.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Signature Play: The Classic Cocktail Is Dead. Or Is It?
Classic cocktails are disappearing from India's cocktail menus. But they're still being ordered, taught to bartenders and borrowed from. So, who's really having the last drink?
-
A New Samvat Wishlist: Inclusive Prosperity And Human Development
India has strengthened its economic foundations through infrastructure, digital access and enterprise. Its next growth chapter must deepen productivity, create better livelihoods and widen participation in prosperity.
-
Love, Sex Aur Dhokha: The Audacious Plot To Spy On Jensen Huang
A Taipei dinner, a Singapore chip buyer and a suspected Chinese asset: inside the alleged spy operation that got close to NVIDIA's Jensen Huang.
-
Ten Things I Learnt This Samvat
Patience can be a trap. Cheap stocks can stay cheap. Leverage can wipe you out. What did Samvat 2082 teach us? Niraj Shah writes on 10 lessons from the year gone by.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
