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It was announced that the cumulative number of fever patients in North Korea, where Corona is spreading, is approaching 2 million.

The NIS said it appears to include not only COVID-19 patients, but also patients with other infectious diseases, such as measles. 



Reporter Kim Min-jung reports.



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The number of new fever patients announced by North Korea is 260,000, and the total number of patients with fever so far has reached 2 million.



North Korea only publishes fever statistics due to a lack of testing equipment.



In the report of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee, the National Intelligence Service said that water-borne infectious diseases such as measles and typhoid had spread considerably in North Korea before the spread of Corona 19, and that North Korea's announcements included a large number of these patients.



[Ha Tae-kyung/Secretary of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee: Before Corona 19, a water-borne infectious disease had already spread a lot, and since the end of April, there was a military parade and now even Corona…

.]



As for North Korea's silent response to South Korea's proposal for cooperation in the prevention and control of COVID-19 so far, the National Intelligence Service was viewed as de facto refusing to support it.



[Ha Tae-kyung/Secretary of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee: China is the first priority, followed by international organizations, and the United States and South Korea will be the last…

.]



North Korea is announcing the number of new fever cases with a trend of decreasing recently, and it was analyzed with the intention of quelling public anxiety.



It was estimated that the COVID-19 situation in North Korea would peak around the end of May and early June.



Even in this crisis of Corona 19, North Korea evaluated that all preparations for its 7th nuclear test had been completed.



The forecast that North Korea would launch a high-intensity provocation in line with the schedule of US President Biden's tour also coincided with US intelligence officials.



[Kim Byung-gi/Secretary of National Assembly Intelligence Committee: Preparations are in the final stage, so it is not unusual for a missile to be launched and a nuclear test at any point.]



Recently, South Korea and the US intelligence authorities have caught a situation in which North Korea is injecting liquid fuel into an ICBM of an intercontinental ballistic missile. .



(Video coverage: Yang Doo-won, video editing: Kim Jin-won)