SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 28 March 2024, Thursday |

S.Korea says leaflets sent by defectors unlikely to be cause of COVID in N.Korea

COVID-19 entering North Korea via tainted balloons supplied by activists in the South is “not a possible,” according to the unification ministry of South Korea, who made the statement on Friday.

In an apparent attempt to place the blame for the outbreak of diseases that rocked the isolated nation on its neighbor, South Korea, North Korea claimed earlier in the day that the country’s first outbreak was caused by patients contacting “foreign items” close to the border.

The North’s state media did not directly mention South Korea, but North Korean defectors and activists have for decades flown balloons from the South across the heavily fortified border, carrying leaflets and humanitarian aid.