Kim Jong Un blasts pandemic response as North Korean outbreak surges

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, centre, visits a pharmacy in Pyongyang (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service/AP)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un blasted officials over slow medicine deliveries and ordered his military to respond to the surging but largely undiagnosed Covid-19 crisis that has left 1.2 million people ill with fever and 50 dead in a matter of days, state media said.

More than 564,860 people are in quarantine due to the fever that has rapidly spread among people in and around the capital, Pyongyang, since late April.