SEOUL: US President Joe Biden said Saturday (May 21) that America had offered COVID-19 vaccines to Pyongyang but "got no response" despite a spiralling epidemic in North Korea, where nearly 2.5 million people have fallen sick with "fever".
Biden, who is in Seoul on his first trip to Asia president, said the United States and South Korea had also made a fresh offer of COVID-19 aid to Pyongyang but had not heard back.
We've offered vaccines, not only to North Korea but to China as well, and we're prepared to do that immediately," he said at a press conference in Seoul. "We've got no response," he added. North Korea reported its first cases of Omicron earlier this month, and despite a "maximum emergency" epidemic campaign, the virus has torn through its unvaccinated 25 million population. On Saturday, North Korean state media reported nearly 2.5 million people had been sick with "fever", with 66 confirmed deaths since the outbreak started. It added that the country had "intensified" its anti-epidemic campaign.