North Korea is seizing on the return of a defector from the South to point the finger at Seoul for the arrival of coronavirus in the country after months of denying it had any cases, AFP reported while quoting analysts.

Pyongyang imposed a lockdown on the border city of Kaesong, saying it had found a suspected Covid-19 infection in a defector who had returned across the heavily fortified Demilitarised Zone that divides the peninsula, state media reported at the weekend.

Seoul officials have said that the man believed to be the re-defector has never been confirmed as a coronavirus patient in the South, nor a contact of a confirmed case.