Doubt cast on North Korea’s claim of just 69 coronavirus deaths

An employee of Pyongyang Dental Hygiene Products Factory disinfects the floor of a dining room (AP Photo/Cha Song Ho, File)

According to North Korea, its fight against Covid-19 has been impressive: about 3.3 million people have been reported sick with fevers, but only 69 have died.

If all are coronavirus cases, that’s a fatality rate of 0.002%, something no other country, including the world’s richest, has achieved against a disease that has killed more than six million people.