SEOUL —
North Korea and
China have resumed
cross-border freight train trade, Seoul said Tuesday, ending a five-month
suspension linked to COVID-19.
اضافة اعلان
North Korea has maintained a rigid blockade since
the start of the pandemic, with even trade with China — the North’s economic
lifeline — slowing to a trickle.
Cross-border freight train services were suspended
in late April, after China’s border town of Dandong reported Covid outbreaks,
reports said at the time. Pyongyang confirmed its own
Omicron variant outbreak
soon after.
“We believe the freight train service has resumed
between China and North Korea,” an official from Seoul’s unification ministry,
which handles relations with the North, told AFP on Tuesday. The official spoke
on condition of anonymity.
China’s foreign ministry said Monday that after
“friendly consultations” the neighboring countries had decided to restart
railway freight.
“The two sides will continue to strengthen
coordination and cooperation, (and) actively ensure the safe and stable
operation of railway freight,” said Wang Wenbin, a
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman.
A locomotive towing around ten train cars crossed
the Dandong-Sinuiju bridge from China into the North on Monday, Seoul’s Yonhap
News Agency reported.
North Korea confirmed an outbreak of the Omicron
variant in the capital Pyongyang in May. It has blamed “alien things” from the
South for causing the outbreak.
Kim Jong Un — who fell ill during the outbreak —
declared victory over the virus in August, and ordered the lifting of the
country’s “maximum emergency epidemic prevention system” after officially
reported cases fell to zero.
North Korea
refers to “fever patients” rather than “COVID patients” in case reports,
apparently due to a lack of testing capacity.
It has recorded nearly 4.8 million “fever”
infections and just 74 deaths for an official fatality rate of 0.002 percent,
according to state media.
Experts, including the
World Health Organization,
have questioned Pyongyang’s COVID statistics, as well as its claims to have
brought the outbreak under control.
North Korea has one of the world’s worst healthcare
systems, with poorly equipped hospitals, few intensive care units, and no COIVD
treatment drugs, according to experts.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
