N. Korea reports 6 deaths after admitting COVID-19 outbreak

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Friday six people died and nearly 190,000 are under quarantine following a rapid spread of fever across the nation in recent weeks, a day after it first acknowledged a COVID-19 outbreak in a largely unvaccinated population.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Friday that more than 350,000 people were treated for fever that “explosively” spread nationwide since late April and that 162,200 people recovered. It said said 187,800 people are being isolated for treatment after 18,000 people were newly found with fever symptoms on Thursday alone.

It wasn’t immediately clear how many of the cases were COVID-19 and the country likely lacks testing supplies. The North said one of the six people who died was confirmed to have been infected with the omicron variant.

North Korea imposed a nationwide lockdown on Thursday to control its first acknowledged COVID-19 outbreak after maintaining a widely doubted claim for more than two years that it completely fended off the virus that has spread to nearly every place in the world.

State media said tests of virus samples collected Sunday from an unspecified number of people with fevers in the capital, Pyongyang, confirmed they were infected with the omicron variant. The reports did not specify the number of cases.

Hours after North Korea confirmed the outbreak Thursday, South Korea’s military said it detected the North firing three short-range ballistic missiles toward the sea in what possibly was a show of strength after leader Kim Jong Un publicly acknowledged the virus outbreak.

It was the North's 16th round of missile launches this year as it pushes a brinkmanship aimed at forcing the United States to accept North Korea as a nuclear power and negotiate sanctions relief and...