A claim that North Korea has executed a coronavirus patient has been widely shared on social media, despite the story being unverifiable.
The story appears in the Singapore version of the International Business Times website, headlined “North Korea’s first confirmed Coronavirus COVID-19 patient shot dead: report”, saying that the country’s leader Kim Jong-un “sanctioned the execution of the first North Korean patient tested positive for the deadly strain of the virus”.
It’s based on a tweet by Twitter user @Secret_Beijing, who describe themselves as a “social observer and analyst about China and beyond.
The tweet’s author does not say what their source for the report might be, but its spread shows that the hunger for sensational news from the secretive country is as great as ever.
