North Korea Launches Mass Covid-19 Vaccination Campaign

North Korea has begun a mass Covid-19 vaccination campaign in its border areas, according to South Korea's spy agency, becoming one of the world's final countries to embark on such a national rollout. From a report: North Korea and Eritrea, in east Africa, were the only remaining countries that hadn't started widespread vaccination distribution, the World Health Organization has said. After rejecting millions of doses from other countries last year, North Korea admitted to its first nationwide Covid-19 outbreak in May and declared victory in August. Then, earlier this month, leader Kim Jong Un said Covid-19 vaccines would be distributed starting in November. He cited findings from the country's antiepidemic experts that North Koreans who contracted Covid-19 in May and June would experience a decline in their antibody response starting in October.

During a Wednesday briefing to South Korean lawmakers, Seoul's spy agency said North Korea had begun distributing vaccines, though it didn't specify in which border areas. The lawmakers who were briefed didn't say where the vaccines had come from or when they were first distributed. Repeated lockdowns suggest North Korea hasn't eradicated the virus, the spy agency told lawmakers. Considering some recent resumption of flights and train operations between China and North Korea, it is most likely that China is supplying the vaccines, said Hong Min, of the Seoul-based Korea Institute for National Unification, a government-funded think tank.

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