[MAIL] North Korea is hiding the true devastation dealt to its people by coronavirus in a bid to spare China embarrassment, a senior defector has revealed.The regime is also desperate to keep its death toll from the people, he said, and was terrified of the 'shockwaves' that would rock society if the real impact was known.
And the new hospital being built in Pyongyang is all part of the propaganda effort, he told the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK).
Kim Myong, who held a senior government role in North Korea, said it was 'absurd lies' to claim the country had no coronavirus cases and the true number 'very likely... exceeds imagination'.
Myong's insight follows hard upon recent speculation leader Kim Jong-un was himself 'gravely ill' after heart surgery, rumours since dismissed as untrue by officials in South Korea.
Speculation around the North Korean leader's health began when he was absent from a celebration of his grandfather's birthday on April 15, one of the biggest events of the year.
The claim about Kim Jong-un's ill health emerged in a report for a website run by North Korean defectors on April 21.