Kim Jong Un
Kim Jong UnKCNA/via REUTERS

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Thursday (local time) declared victory following his country's emergency campaign against COVID-19, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported, citing North Korean state media.

Kim made the announcement during a national meeting on anti-epidemic measures he presided over the previous day, according to the Korean Central News Agency.

He "solemnly declared the victory in the maximum emergency anti-epidemic campaign for exterminating the novel coronavirus that had made inroads into our territory and protecting the lives and health of the people," said KCNA.

North Korea in May reported its first deaths following a rapid spread of fever across the nation.

With the reports, the country in essence acknowledged for the first time that a COVID-19 outbreak had been recorded in the country. North Korea had long insisted it had no single case of the virus on its territory, but that claim was being questioned by outside experts.

Several weeks later, North Korea said it is witnessing a "stable" downward trend in the COVID-19 outbreak.

The World Health Organization (WHO) questioned that claim, saying that while it had no access to data about North Korea's COVID-19 outbreak, it assumed the crisis was deepening.

North Korea’s daily fever tally hit zero on July 29 after peaking at over 392,920 on May 15, according to Yonhap.