South Korea offers to support Covid-19 vaccine for North Korea amid ‘explosion’ epidemic

“President Yoon Suk-yeol plans to provide the North Korean people with a vaccine Covid-19 and other medical supplies,” Kang In-sun, a spokeswoman for the South Korean president, said in a statement, according to Yonhap news agency.

“The number of people suspected of being infected with the virus is said to be increasing explosively in North Korea recently due to the strong outbreak of Covid-19. We will conduct discussions with the North Korean side about the details.” Ms. Kang said.

Leader Kim Jong-un inspects the office of the task force to combat the Covid-19 epidemic on May 12 kcna/reuters

North Korea on May 13 continued to report on current wave of epidemics, said six people have died after a “fever epidemic” spread “explosively”, sickening 350,000 people since last month. One of the deaths was confirmed to be a mutant infection OmicronKCNA news agency reported.

In a report on May 12, KCNA said for the first time that North Korea was responding to the incident Covid-19 outbreak in the country, and Pyongyang has declared the application of a “highest level of emergency” regime to control the epidemic. Leader Kim Jong-un on the same day visited the office of the task force to combat the epidemic.

Yonhap quoted an official from the South Korean presidential office as saying the situation in North Korea was “more serious than reported”. According to the official, who asked not to be named, Seoul “knows more than what has been announced”.

The official also said North Korea has not yet contacted South Korea, but Seoul will be ready to help if Pyongyang offers to help based on the principle of separating humanitarian issues from other issues. military and security.

According to the official, South Korea has not discussed this proposal with the US in advance. Earlier, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that the US has no immediate plans to provide a Covid-19 vaccine to North Korea.

U.S. president Joe Biden will visit Korea and Japan next week. According to information from Ms. Psaki, Mr. Biden is considering to the demilitarized zone on the border between the two Koreas.

Both Seoul and Washington have said they are ready to assist Pyongyang in Covid-19-related fields, including the supply of vaccines and medical supplies, according to Yonhap.