Coronavirus: Kim sacks senior officials for neglect in ‘great crisis’
Firings increase speculation North Korea has succumbed to the coronavirus, having denied any cases for 18 months.
Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, has fired several senior aides for neglecting Covid-19 precautions and causing “a great crisis”, according to the country’s state media.
The report of an emergency state meeting does not go into detail about a “crucial case” but it will encourage speculation that North Korea has succumbed to the coronavirus, having denied any cases for a year and a half.
“Senior officials … neglected the implementation of the important decisions of the party … as required by the prolonged state emergency epidemic prevention campaign … and thus caused a crucial case of creating a great crisis,” said the Korean Central News Agency, quoting a speech by Kim to a meeting of the Politburo.
The report said that the failings were “organisational, institutional, material, scientific and technological”. Several officials were said to have been recalled, a euphemism for sacked, including a member of the Presidium of the Politburo, which consists of four people, apart from Kim himself.
North Korea has been in near-total isolation since closing its borders in January last year, and the government insists no one in the country has tested positive for the virus. Yet the nation has carried out little more than 30,000 tests for a population of about 26 million.
The state media carries repeated warnings about protecting the country against infection from outside, even raising fears over migrating birds and snowfall. The authorities have brought in a shoot-to-kill policy on the border. Last July a South Korean man floating in the sea was shot dead and then burnt.
The Times