Looking for a virus-free travel destination for that next holiday? North Korea says it has a perfect record in keeping COVID-19 away. The claim was made in North Korea’s latest report to the World Health Organization, which says the country reported that it tested 23,121 people for the coronavirus as of April 1 and that all results were negative.
Outsiders have expressed doubt about whether North Korea has escaped the pandemic entirely, given its poor health infrastructure and a porous border it shares with China, its economic lifeline.
During the pandemic, North Korea has severely limited cross-border traffic, banned tourists, jetted out diplomats, and mobilized health workers for quarantines of tens of thousands of people who showed symptoms.
It also recently became the first country to drop out of the Tokyo Olympics because of coronavirus fears.
By contrast, across the border, South Korea is reporting its highest rates of infections since early January. Since the pandemic began, the country has had over 107,000 confirmed cases, with over 1,750 deaths related to COVID-19.