U.S. commander sees no unusual activity inside N. Korea’s missile forces

WASHINGTON, March 17 (Yonhap) — The United States has detected no unusual activity inside North Korea’s missile forces since the outbreak of the new coronavirus, the commander of the U.S. Strategic Command said Tuesday.

In a telephone briefing with reporters, Adm. Charles Richard was asked about the missile forces of Iran and North Korea and what impact the virus has had on them.

“That is something that we look at every single day for every single potential threat to this nation,” he replied. “To date, we have not seen anything beyond what I would describe as normal or day-to-day operations by anyone.”

North Korea has yet to report a single case of COVID-19, but it is sandwiched between China, where the disease emerged in December, and South Korea, which has seen more than 8,000 infections.

Gen. Robert Abrams, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, told reporters Friday that “we’re fairly certain” North Korea has cases.

He also said the North’s armed forces was on lockdown for about 30 days and only recently resumed routine training.

At one point, the regime had not flown a plane for 24 days but is now back to flying training sorties, he said.