North Korea blamed its COVID-19 outbreak on "alien things” likely sent by balloon across its border with South Korea, saying a teenage soldier and a 5-year-old girl in April were the first people in the country infected by coronavirus.
Kim Jong Un’s regime called on its officials "to vigilantly deal with alien things coming by wind and other climate phenomena and balloons in the areas along the demarcation line and borders,” the official Korean Central News Agency said Friday.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry repudiated the claims from North Korea. It said in a briefing with reporters that the balloon launches took place in late April, after Pyongyang said the first infections appeared mid-month. The ministry added that medical research shows there are no precedents for the type of transmission described by its neighbor.