the times | Monday July 27 2020 2GM 13News
Kim Jong-Un has locked down one of
North Korea’s most strategically im-
portant cities and declared a state of
emergency, after the country’s first sus-
pected case of coronavirus was found in
a man who had secretly returned from
South Korea.
The lockdown of Kaesong was an-
nounced on Saturday after the former
defector to South Korea was said to
have sneaked back to the North. Ac-
cording to the authorities in the South,
he had come under suspicion of rape.
“An emergency event happened in
Kaesong city, where a runaway who
went to the south three years ago, a per-
son suspected to have been infected
with the vicious virus, returned on July
19 after illegally crossing the demarca-
tion line,” the North’s Korean Central
News Agency (KCNA) reported. It said
that medical tests had revealed “an un-
certain result”, but that everyone in the
city had been quarantined since Friday.
“Despite the intense, preventive anti-
epidemic measures taken for the past
six months, there happened a critical
situation in which the vicious virus
could be said to have entered the coun-
try,” Mr Kim was quoted as having told
an emergency meeting of the politburo.
He was reported to have activated the
country’s “maximum emergency
system” and issued a “top-class alert”.
The KCNA said: “He appealed to all
to overcome the present epidemic crisis
by not losing the focus of thinking and
action, practising responsibility and de-
votion to be faithful and true to the
leadership of the party.”
North Korea claims not to have had a
single case of Covid-19, a claim regard-
ed as unlikely by many observers,
because of its 880-mile border with
China, which is inconsistently guarded
and readily penetrated by smugglers.
In March the commander of Amer-10,000 cases a day cast a
cloud over Sunshine State
David Charter WashingtonFlorida has become the second state
after California to overtake New York
as new cases took the Sunshine State’s
total infections above 420,000.
New York, the worst-hit state at the
start of the US outbreak, still has the
most deaths of any, at more than
32,000. Florida is in eighth place at
nearly 6,000, a difference attributed to
better protection of the elderly and im-
proved medical treatments.
Florida has added 10,000 cases a day
on average in July while California has
been adding 8,300 and New York 700.
More than 9,300 new cases were re-
ported yesterday, along with 78 deaths.
The surge in Florida continues even
though Ron DeSantis, the Republican
governor, has repeatedly refused to
make masks mandatory and has said
that schools must reopen next month.
The state is looking to reopen more
bars and restaurants next month.
New York state, led by Andrew Cuo-
mo, its Democratic governor, got the
virus under control by making masks
mandatory and bringing in restrictions
for bars and restaurants.
Mr DeSantis is a supporter of Presi-
dent Trump’s push to reopen schools
despite concerns of teachers that child-ren could contract or transmit the dis-
ease should they return to classrooms.
Florida allowed Walt Disney World
to reopen two weeks ago with social dis-
tancing measures in place, but figures
showed that occupancy of hotel rooms
in the Orlando area remained down by
more than 60 per cent compared with
last year. Fewer than half the Disney re-
sort’s 43,000 workers have been re-
called to their jobs.
“This is an extremely difficult
moment,” said Paul Cox, president of a
union that represents stagehands and
show technicians at Walt Disney
World. “There are still a majority of
workers who are staying at home and
they’re about to lose support. Things
are going to get bad.”
Politicians in Congress have yet to
agree on a replacement for the weekly
payments of $600 for millions of Amer-
icans who were laid off, which are due
to end on Friday.
After Florida, Texas has the highest
total of coronavirus cases at more than
390,000. Compounding the state’s
problems, Greg Abbott, the Republican
governor, said that Tropical Storm
Hanna, which made landfall on Satur-
day as a Category 1 hurricane, had
swept through the area worst hit by the
coronavirus.protests outside Binyamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem at the weekendGlobal cases 15,785,
Global deaths 640,
World update
Countries reporting
most deathsSource: WHOUS 4,009,808 143,663 434
Brazil 2,343,366 85,238 401
UK 299,426 45,752 674
Mexico 378,285 42,645 331
Italy 245,864 35,102 581
India 1,385,522 32,063 23
France 169,222 30,078 461
Spain 272,421 28,432 608
Peru 375,961 17,843 541
Iran 288,839 15,484 184
Russia 812,485 13,269 91
Belgium 65,634 9,821 847
Germany 205,269 9,118 109
Chile 343,592 9,020 472
Canada 113,206 8,881 235
Colombia 233,541 7,975 157
South Africa 434,200 6,655 112
Netherlands 52,732 6,140 358
Pakistan 273,113 5,822 26
Sweden 78,997 5,697 564
Turkey 225,173 5,596 66
Ecuador 80,036 5,507 312
Indonesia 97,286 4,714 17
China 86,839 4,659 3
Egypt 91,583 4,558 45
Iraq 107,573 4,284 107Cases DeathsDeaths/
1m popMost new cases1791 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 910
11
12
13
14
15
31
65US
Brazil
India
South Africa
Mexico
Colombia
Russia
Argentina
Peru
Iraq
Bangladesh
Iran
Chile
Saudi Arabia
Philippines
UK
China12,
7, 57 3
7,
5,
5,
4,
2,
2,
2,
2,
2,
1,
74748,71,
55,Reported new casesican forces in South Korea said that
Pyongyang probably had cases of the
virus, based on observation of its armed
forces, which suspended exercises and
kept troops in barracks for a month.
The Japanese defence minister, Taro
Kono, has said that the virus appeared
to be at large in North Korea. The ab-
sence from public view of Mr Kim for
much of this year could be explained by
a decision to self-isolate.
It would be politically convenient for
Mr Kim to blame infection on a defec-
tor to the South, whom the regime
would hold in contempt. It would, how-
ever, be unusual, and difficult, for any-
one to have crossed the border between
North and South Korea, which is
marked by barbed wire and minefields.
According to reports from Seoul, the
South Korean authorities are aware of
a 24-year-old defector under investi-
gation for rape, who may have dis-
appeared by swimming between two is-
lands controlled by the South and
North respectively.
“The military is looking into the de-
tailed routes, seeing high chances of a
certain person’s border crossing into
the North,” an unnamed South Korean
government official told the Yonhap
news agency.News
North Korea blames
infected defector as it
puts city in lockdown
Richard Lloyd Parry Asia EditorKim Jong-Un “has activated North
Korea’s maximum security alert”ARIEL SCHALIT/AP]KOREAN CENTRAL NEWS AGENCY/KOREA NEWS SERVICE/APsays Bolsonaro as he gets on his bike
germany
A Bavarian farm was placed under
forced quarantine yesterday after
174 seasonal workers became
infected by coronavirus.
The farm in the Dingolfing-
Landau region has been placed
under guard by a security company
to prevent any of the 480 people
working there, including managers,
from spreading the virus further.
The authorities moved quickly to
avoid a wider regional lockdown.
The Bavaria outbreak accounted
for most of the new daily cases that
pushed Germany’s reproduction rate
up from 1.08 to 1.24 at the weekend.belgium
New lockdown measures have been
introduced in Antwerp, the
country’s largest urban district, after
the number of infections rose by 805
over the past week.
On Saturday police closed nine
cafés where social distancing was
not properly observed. This weekend
the city made masks mandatory in
busy public places for everyone over
12 years old and gatherings of more
than ten people are banned.
Footage showed a police officer in
the Flemish city of Roeselare using
pepper spray and punching a man
who refused to wear a mask.japan
The top-flight football league
called off a match yesterday after
two Nagoya Grampus players
tested positive for the coronavirus.
Sanfrecce Hiroshima’s home
match against Nagoya was called
off as Japan battles a surge of
infections, particularly in cities
such as Tokyo and Osaka, stoking
public fears about a second wave.
It was the first game shelved since
the J-League resumed a month
ago. Kazuya Miyahara, a Nagoya
defender, developed a fever and
headache on Friday and tested
positive for the virus. The team
tested 60 players and officials;
another player and a staff member
tested positive despite showing no
symptoms.
Japan reported 809 new cases on
Saturday, compared with 99 cases
detected a month ago and 27 cases
found on May 26.taiwan
An island-hopping ocean cruise
resumed yesterday. About 900
holidaymakers are adapting to new
safety measures when boarding
Genting Hong Kong’s Explorer
Dream for trips of up to five days
from Taiwan to its scenic outlying
islands of Penghu, Kinmen and
Matsu. The ship is carrying a third
of its maximum passenger limit,
and is equipped with 22 Covid-
wards if passengers fall ill.President Bolsonaro went out on his motorbike after recovering from Covid-SERGIO LIMA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES