North Korea has lifted the lockdown on the capital, according to the Russian embassy

SEOUL – The Russian embassy in North Korea says the country has eased strict disease controls in the capital Pyongyang that were put in place over the past five days to slow the spread of respiratory illnesses.

North Korea has not officially acknowledged a lockdown in Pyongyang or a resurgence of COVID-19 after leader Kim Jong Un declared a much-contested victory over the coronavirus in August, but Facebook posts from the Russian embassy have provided rare insights into the mysterious country’s infectious disease control.

The embassy on Monday released a statement from North Korea’s foreign ministry, informing foreign diplomats that the “special anti-epidemic period” imposed in Pyongyang since Wednesday was lifted on Monday.

Last week, the embassy said North Korean health officials required diplomatic missions to keep their staff indoors and take their temperatures four times a day and report the results to a hospital in Pyongyang. It said the North Korean measures were in response to an increase in “flu and other respiratory illnesses,” but made no mention of the spread of COVID-19 or restrictions on ordinary citizens.

Just before this post NK Newsa North Korea-centric news website quoted a statement from the North Korean government to report that health officials have imposed a five-day lockdown in Pyongyang to curb the spread of respiratory diseases.

North Korean state media have stressed vigilance over a possible resurgence of COVID-19 in recent weeks. The official Rodong Sinmun newspaper, which previously dubbed the antivirus campaign “No. 1 priority” in national affairs, urged North Koreans on Monday to maintain a “sense of high crisis” as COVID-19 continues to spread in neighboring countries.

North Korea claims there have been no confirmed COVID-19 cases since Aug. 10, when Kim told a major political conference the country had eradicated the coronavirus, just three months after the country did acknowledged an omicron outbreak.

While Kim claimed that the country’s alleged success against the virus would be recognized as a global health miracle, experts believe North Korea has manipulated disclosures about its outbreak to help it maintain absolute control.

From May to August, North Korea reported about 4.8 million “fever cases” in a population of 26 million, but only identified a fraction of them as COVID-19. Experts say they do the country’s official death toll of 74 is unusually small considering the country’s lack of public health tools.

North Korea has dubiously insisted that rival South Korea was to blame for its COVID-19 outbreak, saying the virus was transported through anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets and other materials flown across the border in balloons launched by South Korean civil activists. South Korea has dismissed such claims as unscientific and “ridiculous”.