North Korea announced its first-ever Covid case on Thursday and proclaimed a “severe emergency,” with leader Kim Jong Un ordering statewide lockdowns for the first time on broadcast while wearing a mask.

Since the onset of the epidemic in 2020, the nuclear-armed country had never acknowledged a case of Covid-19, and the government had enforced a strict coronavirus blockade of its borders.

However, samples retrieved from feverish patients in Pyongyang “coincided with Omicron BA.2 strain,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

On Thursday, top officials, including leader Kim Jong Un, conducted a crisis politburo meeting to assess the outbreak and announced that the “maximum emergency epidemic prevention system” will be implemented.

The official KCTV showed Kim at the meeting wearing a mask — the first time he has done so in public since the start of the pandemic. Other top officials present were also masked.

Kim “instructed all cities and counties throughout the country to completely lock down their areas,” according to KCNA, though the restrictions were not immediately disclosed.

According to KCNA, Kim stated at the meeting that the goal was to “immediately heal the diseases in order to destroy the root of the viral propagation.”

North Korea will “overcome the current unexpected situation and triumph in the emergency pandemic prevention work,” according to Kim.

The KCNA article did not specify how many Covid infections had been discovered.

Experts think North Korea’s decrepit health infrastructure would struggle to deal with a significant outbreak, especially because the country’s 25 million people are not vaccinated.

“For Pyongyang to publicly admit Omicron cases, the public health situation must be serious,” Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul said.

“Pyongyang will likely double down on lockdowns, even though the failure of China’s zero-Covid strategy suggests that approach won’t work against the Omicron variant.”

– No vaccines –
North Korea has turned down offers of vaccinations from the World Health Organization, China, and Russia.

Accepting vaccines through the WHO’s Covax scheme “requires transparency over how vaccines are distributed,” Go Myong-hyun, a researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies told AFP.

“That’s why North Korea rejected it,” Go said.

North Korea is surrounded by countries that have faced – and continue to face – severe Omicron-fueled outbreaks.

South Korea, which has strong vaccination rates, has recently relaxed practically all Covid-19 restrictions, with instances falling dramatically since a peak in March.

China, the world’s only major economy with a zero-Covid policy, is currently dealing with many Omicron epidemics.

For weeks, major Chinese cities, including the financial hub Shanghai, have been on lockdown.

China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Thursday that the country was “ready to provide all support and help to North Korea in its fight against the pandemic.”

It appears North Korea will try to avoid China’s strict measures, which have seen millions of people locked into their apartments for several weeks, including in Beijing, said Cheong Seong-chang of the Sejong Institute.

But even less harsh measures would create a “severe food shortage and the same chaos China is now facing,” he said.

Seoul-based specialist site NK News reported that areas of Pyongyang had already been locked down for two days, with reports of panic buying.

– Nuke test? –
The public emergence of Covid in Pyongyang could also have repercussions on North Korea’s nuclear programme.

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was sworn in Tuesday, has vowed to get tough with Pyongyang, after five years of failed diplomacy.

Following the breakdown of high-profile talks in 2019, North Korea has increased its weapons testing, launching a barrage of missiles this year, including intercontinental ballistic missiles.

North Korea is preparing to perform a nuclear test, according to satellite photos, and the US has warned that this may happen as soon as this month.

But the Covid-19 outbreak could potentially disrupt their military programme, analysts said.

“There is a possibility of delaying the nuclear test in order to focus on overcoming the coronavirus,” Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies, told AFP.

But he said if public fears over an outbreak were to spread, Kim might go ahead with a test “to divert this fear to another place”.