SEOUL — North Korea’s chief, Kim Jong-un, mentioned the nation had introduced its coronavirus outbreak to an finish with out vaccines, state media reported on Thursday, whereas Mr. Kim’s sister accused South Korea of sending the virus throughout the border and threatened​ “lethal”​ retaliation​.

After two years of claiming to haven’t any Covid-19 instances, North Korea reported an outbreak in Could, saying a “most emergency” and locking down all of its cities and counties. On Wednesday, Mr. Kim ​“solemnly declared the victory​” in “exterminating the novel coronavirus that had made inroads into our territory​,” the state-run Korean Central Information Company reported. ​

Mr. Kim, talking at a gathering with nationwide well being officers, mentioned his authorities would downgrade its anti-disease vigilance to an “extraordinary” stage as of Friday, in keeping with the report.

​Exterior consultants have forged doubt on the North’s ​Covid-related claims, together with its previous assertions that it had no instances. The figures it has launched since Could have additionally been considered with skepticism, partly as a result of the remoted, impoverished nation doesn’t have sufficient testing kits or laboratories to precisely observe a significant outbreak.​

In keeping with the Thursday report, Mr. Kim mentioned all of the Covid sufferers recognized by his authorities had been recognized with ​the Omicron subvariant BA.2. Although North Korea has reported 4.7 million instances of individuals creating a excessive fever throughout the outbreak,​ it has by no means mentioned what number of had been confirmed Covid-19 infections.

The North, which has a inhabitants of about 26 million, has reported simply 74 deaths throughout the outbreak. Even these deaths had been formally attributed to a “malignant pandemic illness​” or a “malignant virus,” not explicitly to Covid.

South Korean intelligence officers have advised lawmakers that a few of the North Koreans with fever signs could have had illnesses like whooping cough, measles or typhoid.

North Korea​ mentioned its outbreak started in late April​. Its​ each day reported caseload of ​individuals with fevers peaked at 390,000, on Could 16. In latest weeks, that determine fell under 100,000, and ​the federal government started saying that it had introduced the outbreak underneath management.​ It has reported no new instances since July 29.

On the Wednesday assembly with Mr. Kim, North Korean officers mentioned it was “a miracle unprecedented on the planet’s public well being historical past​” that the North had quashed the outbreak so rapidly regardless of by no means having vaccinated its individuals, in keeping with the state media report.

Final month, the North recommended that the coronavirus had entered the nation on overseas objects from South Korea, saying that its outbreak had begun in villages close to the nations’ closely militarized border.​ Whereas indirectly blaming the South​, its assertion recommended that the objects had been introduced in by balloons, which North Korean defectors residing within the South typically use to ship anti-Kim propaganda leaflets, greenback payments and different objects throughout the border.

Kim Yo-jong, Mr. Kim’s sister, took a much more accusatory tone throughout the Wednesday assembly, blaming “disgusting ones in ​South Korea​” for inflicting the outbreak by scattering “leaflets, financial institution notes, terrible booklets and issues over our territory,” in keeping with the state media report.

“​We’ve already thought-about varied counteraction plans however our countermeasure should be a lethal retaliatory one​,” Ms. Kim, who acts as her brother’s spokeswoman on South Korean points, was quoted as saying.

She additionally recommended that Mr. Kim could have had Covid, saying that he had led the nationwide marketing campaign in opposition to the virus regardless of having a “excessive fever.”

South Korea ​has ​mentioned that it’s not possible for the balloon launches to have introduced Covid-19 into the North, saying it had consulted disease-control consultants on the problem. O​n Thursday, the South Korean authorities known as Ms. Kim’s accusation “far-fetched” and “very impolite.”