SEOUL: North Korea reported zero fever cases Friday for a seventh straight day, state media said, adding that everyone who had fallen sick since the country confirmed its first COVID-19 infections had recovered.
The isolated country, which has maintained a rigid coronavirus blockade since the start of the pandemic, announced an omicron outbreak in the capital Pyongyang in May and activated a “maximum emergency epidemic prevention system.”
State media have meticulously reported the official number of cases, deaths, treatments and recoveries every day since, with leader Kim Jong Un putting himself front and center of the government’s response.
North Korea refers to “fever patients” rather than “COVID-19 patients” in case reports, apparently due to a lack of testing capacity.
“No new fever cases were reported during the past week and all those receiving treatment have recovered across the country,” the official KCNA reported Friday.
“The overall anti-epidemic situation of the DPRK has entered a definite phase of stability,” the report added.
The country will continue to strengthen its monitoring of “new COVID-19 sub-variants and various diseases” and can still mobilize medical workers “in case of a crisis,” it added.
North Korea has recorded nearly 4.8 million infections since late April with just 74 deaths for an official fatality rate of 0.002 percent, KCNA has reported.
The country has one of the world’s worst health care systems, with poorly equipped hospitals, few intensive care units, and no COVID-19 treatment drugs or vaccines, experts say.
In contrast, South Korea — with its advanced health care systems and highly vaccinated population — has a reported COVID-19 fatality rate of 0.12 percent, according to official data.
“It is hard to believe any country if they say that the confirmed number of patients has suddenly gone to zero,” Ahn Chan-il, a North Korean studies scholar, said.
“Like its military weapons and nuclear programs, it seems right to say that COVID is also being used to highlight Kim Jong Un’s leadership and shore up loyalty, regardless of what the truth is.”
Pyongyang said in late May it had started seeing “progress” in controlling the outbreak but experts, including the World Health Organization, have repeatedly cast doubt on the claim.
North Korea is not believed to have vaccinated any of its roughly 25 million people, having rejected jabs offered by the WHO’s Covax program.
The Seoul-based specialist site NK News reported that North Korea imported 3,554 invasive ventilators from China in June, sharply up from April, despite an overall decrease in trade.
But Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, said that Pyongyang’s claim to have brought the epidemic under control seemed “somewhat reliable.”
Things could be getting back to normal as “there are no signs of tighter border control, no official request has been made to Beijing for medical aid or equipment, and Pyongyang-based diplomats remain in place,” he said.
North Korea: ‘All recovered’ after COVID-19 outbreak
https://arab.news/494mj
North Korea: ‘All recovered’ after COVID-19 outbreak
- Isolated country has maintained a rigid coronavirus blockade since the start of the pandemic
- North Korea refers to ‘fever patients’ rather than ‘COVID-19 patients’ in case reports
Zelensky says Ukraine would do ‘everything’ but cannot budge on Crimea
PRETORIA: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that Kyiv would do “everything” its allies wanted but could not recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea, considered illegal under Ukraine’s constitution.
“We do everything that our partners have proposed, only what contradicts our legislation and the constitution we cannot do,” Zelensky told reporters during a visit to South Africa in response to a question about Ukraine’s position on ceasefire talks.
Spain scraps purchase of Israeli bullets after internal pressure
- Spain, a long-time critic of Israel’s policies in the occupied Palestinian territories, pledged in October 2023 to stop selling weapons to Israel over its war with Hamas in Gaza
- The purchase, worth $7.53m, includes the acquisition of more than 15 million 9-mm rounds from Israel’s IMI Systems
MADRID: The Spanish government has unilaterally canceled a contract to purchase ammunition rounds for its police force from an Israeli firm, a government source said on Thursday, ceding to pressure from its hard-left junior coalition partner Sumar.
Spain, a long-time critic of Israel’s policies in the occupied Palestinian territories, pledged in October 2023 to stop selling weapons to Israel over its war with Hamas in Gaza and last year widened that commitment to include weapons purchases from Israel.
However, on April 17 as Spaniards geared up for the Easter holiday weekend, the government filed paperwork confirming the deal on the government tenders website.
The purchase, worth 6.6 million euros ($7.53 million), includes the acquisition of more than 15 million 9-mm rounds from Israel’s IMI Systems, owned by Elbit Systems and represented in Spain by Guardian LTD Israel.
The decision drew a sharp rebuke on Wednesday from coalition partner Sumar, with one of the groups within Sumar, Izquierda Unida, threatening to withdraw from the minority coalition government.
The Interior Ministry responded that it had been advised by the state attorney that breaking the contract would mean paying the full amount without receiving the shipment.
On Thursday, a government source said it had decided to stick to its October 2023 commitment not to provide Israeli companies with arms or revenue flows “and nor will it do so in future.”
The source said the Israeli company would be denied permission to import the defense material by the Spanish authorities on “public interest” grounds, the Interior Ministry would rescind the contract and government lawyers would respond to any subsequent legal claims.
Internal divisions over defense spending have already rattled the ruling coalition, threatening to deprive Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of precious votes in parliament to pass legislation.
On Tuesday, Sanchez further angered Sumar, a platform of left-wing parties that controls five ministries led by deputy premier Yolanda Diaz, by announcing a wider plan to boost defense spending by 10.47 billion euros to meet NATO targets.
The minority government has struggled to pass legislation since securing a new term by cobbling together an alliance of left-wing and regional separatist parties in 2023.
US deports Iraqi man at center of debate on refugee policy
- Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, who was granted refugee status in the US in 2014, denied Iraqi charges that he murdered a police officer as a Daesh operative
- Ameen was sent to Rwanda earlier this month according to the US official who spoke on condition of anonymity
NAIROBI/WASHINGTON: The United States has deported to Rwanda a resettled Iraqi refugee who it long tried to extradite in response to Iraqi government claims that he worked for Daesh, according to a US official and an internal email.
Omar Abdulsattar Ameen, who was granted refugee status in the US in 2014, denied Iraqi charges that he murdered a police officer as a Daesh operative, and a judge found in 2021 that the version of events in the case against him was “not plausible.”
But the administrations of Joe Biden and Donald Trump both pursued his removal from the country, accusing him of lying on his refugee application by saying he had not interacted with terrorist groups.
After the start of his second term in January, Trump launched a sweeping crackdown on immigration and attempted to freeze the US refugee resettlement program.
Ameen was sent to Rwanda earlier this month, according to the US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, and the internal email seen by Reuters.
A US State Department spokesperson declined to comment on Ameen’s case, and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Rwanda’s government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
Online news outlet The Handbasket, which broke the news of Ameen’s deportation, cited a leaked cable from the US embassy in Kigali as saying that Rwanda had agreed to receive additional third-country nationals under a “new removal program.”
Reuters was not able to confirm the contents of the cable or any deal between the United States and Rwanda.
The central African country has positioned itself as a destination country for migrants that Western countries would like to remove.
It signed an agreement with Britain in 2022 to take in thousands of asylum seekers from the UK before the deal was scrapped last year by then newly-elected Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
After his arrest in 2018 following murder charges in Iraq, Ameen’s case was cited by the first Trump administration and some Republicans in Congress as an example of security risks posed by refugees and an argument against resettling them in the US
A US magistrate judge refused to allow his extradition to Iraq in 2021, saying there was overwhelming evidence Ameen was living as a refugee in Turkiye at the time of the alleged murder, but the US government continued to push for his deportation to a third country.
Human Rights Watch said in 2021 that his treatment showed “a system of arbitrary detention and cruel enforcement.”
India PM vows to pursue Kashmir attackers to ‘ends of the Earth’
- Modi’s statement comes after 26 people were shot dead at the tourist hotpot of Pahalgam
- He promised to make the perpetrators ‘pay beyond their imagination’ in a speech to a crowd
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed on Thursday to punish all those responsible for a gruesome attack in Kashmir that killed 26 men.
“I say to the whole world: India will identify, track and punish every terrorist and their backer,” he said in his first speech since Tuesday’s attack in the Himalayan region. “We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth.”
The shooting in the tourist hotpot of Pahalgam was the deadliest attack on civilians in the contested Muslim-majority territory since 2000.
Of the men killed, 26 were Indian and one was Nepali.
India accused Islamabad on Wednesday of supporting “cross-border terrorism” and downgraded ties with its neighbor with a raft of diplomatic measures.
Pakistan has denied any role in the Pahalgam attack.
Modi, who was speaking in Bihar state to launch development projects, first led two minutes of silence in memory of those killed.
“I say this unequivocally: whoever has carried out this attack, and the ones who devised it, will be made to pay beyond their imagination,” he said, speaking in Hindi in front of a large crowd.
“They will certainly pay. Whatever little land these terrorists have, it’s time to reduce it to dust. The willpower of 1.4 billion Indians will break the backbone of these terrorists.”
He finished his speech with rare comments in English, directing them to an audience abroad.
“Terrorism will not go unpunished,” Modi said. “Every effort will be made to ensure that justice is done.”
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, with both claiming the high-altitude territory in full but governing separate portions of it.
Rebel groups have waged an insurgency in Indian-controlled Kashmir since 1989, demanding independence or a merger with Pakistan.
Indian security forces have launched a vast manhunt in Kashmir for the attackers, with large numbers of people detained in the operation.
Zelensky cancels part of South Africa trip, returns to Kyiv after Russian attack
KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Thursday he was canceling a part of his program in South Africa and returning to Ukraine after intense Russian missile and drone attacks on Kyiv.
Zelensky said on the Telegram app that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha would conduct all necessary meetings in South Africa to inform leaders about the situation in Ukraine.
