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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presides over a meeting of the Executive Policy Council of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on Aug. 5. (KCNA/Yonhap News)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has decided to provide special aid, including food and living subsidies, to residents of the city of Kaesong, according to a front-page story in North Korea’s state-run Rodong Sinmun on Aug. 6. Kaesong went under a complete lockdown one week after the return of a North Korean defector allegedly infected with COVID-19 on July 19.

Kim made the decision to “stabilize the [livelihood] of its citizens” after hearing “a report on the anti-epidemic work and the situation in Kaesong City that is completely locked down under the state's maximum emergency system,” the Rodong Sinmun reported. The occasion was the 4th Meeting of the Executive Policy Council of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK).

The North Korean authorities elevated their emergency system to the maximum level after a North Korean defector who’d crossed back over the border from Gangwha Island to Kaesong was suspected of being infected with COVID-19. On July 24, Pyongyang placed the border city of Kaesong under lockdown.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presides over a meeting of the Executive Policy Council of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea on Aug. 5. (KCNA/Yonhap News)

“The meeting of the Executive Policy Council examined and discussed the issue of organizing a new department within the Central Committee of the Party and studied and discussed the ways to radically improve the personnel affairs system of the Party,” the Rodong Sinmun reported, adding that “the meeting also appraised the work of cadres in major offices of the government and discussed relevant measures.”

Meanwhile, North Korea’s test results for the defector suspected of being the country’s first coronavirus case were inconclusive, though authorities have quarantined over 3,635 primary and secondary contacts, Reuters reported citing a World Health Organization official’s email.

“The person was tested for COVID-19, but test results were inconclusive,” Dr. Edwin Salvador, WHO representative for North Korea, said in an email to Reuters on Aug. 5. “As many as 64 first contacts and 3,571 secondary contacts of the suspected case have been identified and quarantined in government facilities for a period of 40 days,” Salvador said.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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