Seoul | North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared victory over COVID-19 at a national meeting where his sister, in an especially combative speech, said Mr Kim had suffered a fever himself and laid dubious blame against South Korea for the outbreak while vowing deadly retaliation.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said on Thursday that Mr Kim ordered that preventive measures be eased just three months after the country first acknowledged an outbreak, claiming its widely disputed success would be recognised as a global health miracle.

AP