OPENING UP

Unofficial Pyongyang Lockdown Is Over, Russian Embassy Says

Kim Jong Un’s regime never officially acknowledged the restrictions imposed after declaring victory over COVID.

Lockdown restrictions rolled out across the North Korean capital have ended, the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang said Monday. The North Korean government has not officially acknowledged a lockdown in the capital or a new outbreak of COVID after the country declared an extremely dubious victory over the coronavirus last year, but reports emerged last week that a five-day order of new restrictions had been imposed to thwart “rising” cases of respiratory illnesses. On Monday, the Russian Embassy in North Korea shared a notice on its Facebook page apparently from North Korea’s Foreign Ministry telling foreign diplomats that the “intensified anti-epidemic period” imposed last Wednesday had ended as of Monday.