After hitting the world more than two-and-a-half year, claiming millions lives and uprooting the economy, for the first time the deadly virus Corona stepped-in into North Korea. To tackle the virus, the tiny country equipped with nuclear atomic power has declared “National Emergency” with immediate effect.

North Korea which implemented strict rules to enter the epidemic into the nation,
on Thursday announced its first-ever coronavirus case.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for raising COVID-19 preventive measures to maximum levels.
The agency said Kim called a meeting of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party’s Politburo, where members decided to raise its anti-virus measures. Kim, during the meeting, called for officials to stabilize transmissions and eliminate the infection source as fast as possible.

Despite the decision to elevate anti-virus steps, Kim ordered officials to push ahead with scheduled construction, agricultural development and other state projects while bolstering the country’s defense postures to avoid any security vacuum.

Kim said officials must also formulate steps to ease any public inconveniences and other negative situations that could flare as a result of the boosted anti-pandemic measures. Kim said that “the single-minded public unity is the most powerful guarantee that can win in this anti-pandemic fight,” KCNA said.

To keep the virus from entering its territory, North Korea had closed its border to nearly all trade and visitors for two years that further shocked an economy already damaged by decades of mismanagement and crippling US-led sanctions over its nuclear weapons and missile program.

North Korea in January tentatively reopened railroad freight traffic between its border town of Sinuiju and China’s Dandong, but China announced a halt to the trade last month as it deals with a spread of COVID-19 in Dandong.

North Korea so far has shunned vaccines offered by the UN-backed COVAX distribution programme, possibly because those have international monitoring requirements.