North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un spoke out on Saturday to once again claim that his country has no coronavirus cases.

Fox News reported that Kim made this claim during a military parade that aimed to boost internal unity among North Koreans after a difficult year that saw border closures to stem the pandemic spread and devastating summer floods and typhoons that have only led to more food shortages in the hermit kingdom.

While speaking at the parade, which was meant to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the country’s ruling party, Kim called on his people to remain firm in the face of “tremendous challenge” posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. He also thanked North Koreans for managing to overcome the “unexpected” burdens of this year, and for following the anti-virus measures that he claims has kept coronavirus out of the country completely, a claim that outside observers have questioned.

North Korea sent a report to the World Health Organization claiming to have quarantined 64 first contacts of the suspected coronavirus case in Kaesong and 3,571 secondary contacts in state-run facilities for a period of 40 days, according to Dr. Edwin Salvador, who is the WHO representative to North Korea. However, many experts believe that coronavirus entered North Korea quite some time ago given the fact that the nation closed its border with China, which is its biggest trading partner, just a few weeks after the first virus cases were recorded in China back in December.

“Though a really extensive local outbreak might not have occurred yet, it’s likely that a considerable number of people has been infected,” explained analyst Hong Min at Seoul’s Korea Institute for National Unification. “Even though North Korea locks itself down, there should be suspected cases there and authorities must aggressively diagnose them. But North Korea has never been transparent about whether it has such a capacity and the will to do so.”

A new ballistic missile was also unveiled during the parade by Kim, who warned that his country would “fully mobilize” its nuclear force if threatened. The White House fired back at this with a brief statement expressing disappointment.

“It is disappointing to see the DPRK (North Korea) continuing to prioritize its prohibited nuclear and ballistic missile program over working towards a brighter future for the North Korean people,” the White House statement read. “The United States remains guided by the vision President Trump and Chairman Kim set forth in Singapore, and calls on the DPRK to engage in sustained and substantive negotiations to achieve complete denuclearization.”

This piece originally appeared in UpliftingToday.com and is used by permission.

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