Ministry of Unification: "Need to Monitor Impact of Omicron Variant on North Korea's Border Closure"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] As North Korea continues to warn about the 'Omicron variant' of COVID-19 through state-run media, the government stated that the impact of the Omicron variant on the lifting of the North Korea-China border closure needs to be observed further.

Lee Jong-joo, spokesperson for the Ministry of Unification, said at a regular briefing on the 29th, "The issue of lifting the North Korea-China border closure is a matter to be decided comprehensively considering consultations between North Korea and China, the maintenance status of quarantine facilities in border areas, and the trend of COVID-19 spread," adding, "It is difficult to definitively state the impact of the Omicron variant occurrence."

The spokesperson added, "Since an ultra-high-level emergency quarantine stage has already been declared and high-intensity quarantine measures such as border closures are being implemented, no trends of taking separate additional measures in response to the Omicron variant have been confirmed so far."

On the same day, the Korean Central News Agency reported, "A new type of variant virus, which is five times more contagious than the δ (Delta) variant virus, has been discovered worldwide, causing serious concern."

Earlier, on the 28th, Rodong Sinmun also warned about the fatality of the Omicron virus, stating, "As the global situation of the new coronavirus infection continues to worsen, a new variant virus is rapidly spreading, mainly in the southern region of the African continent," and Korean Central TV also reported in an evening broadcast the previous day that a "new variant virus that may neutralize vaccines" was found in South Africa, causing "many countries around the world to be terrified."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.