Mr Kim said it was clear the virus situation in Kaesong was stable and expressed gratitude to residents for cooperating with the three-week lockdown, the state-run Korean Central News Agency said.
In late July, Mr Kim ordered a total lockdown of the city and had the nation shift into a “maximum emergency system” after the North claimed it had found someone with symptoms consistent with Covid-19.
The North’s state media said the suspected patient was a North Korean who had earlier fled to the South before slipping back into Kaesong.
But South Korean health authorities said the 24-year-old had not tested positive in South Korea and never had contact with any known virus carrier.
North Korea later said the person’s test results were inconclusive and still maintains it is virus-free, a status widely doubted by outsiders.
Meanwhile, Mr Kim has insisted the North will keep its borders shut and rejected any outside help as the country carries out an aggressive anti-virus campaign and rebuilds thousands of houses, roads and bridges damaged by heavy rain and floods in recent weeks.
The KCNA also said Mr Kim replaced Kim Jae Ryong as Cabinet premier at a ruling party meeting following an evaluation of the Cabinet’s performance in economic affairs and appointed Kim Tok Hun as his successor.
Entering the last year of an ambitious five-year national development plan, Mr Kim declared a “frontal breakthrough” against international sanctions in December while urging his nation to stay resilient in a struggle for economic self-reliance.
But experts say the Covid-19 crisis likely thwarted some of his major economic goals by forcing the country into a lockdown that shut the border with China – the North’s major ally and economic lifeline – and potentially hampered his ability to mobilise people for labour.
