Workers at a department store in Pyongyang carry out disinfection work to curb the spread of COVID-19.
(Photo: AP-Yonhap)
The World Health Organization is working to ship COVID-19 medical supplies into North Korea, a possible sign that the North is easing one of the world's strictest pandemic border closures to receive outside help.
In a weekly monitoring report, the WHO said it has started the shipment of essential COVID-19 medical supplies through the Chinese port city of Dalian for "strategic stockpiling and further dispatch" to North Korea.
It remains unclear what types of supplies were being sent and whether they were received.
North Korea has yet to report a single case of the novel coronavirus, but outside experts widely doubt it escaped the pandemic.
The North has told WHO it has tested 40,700 people for the coronavirus through September 23 and that all the tests were negative.
The latest WHO report came weeks after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered officials to wage a tougher anti-virus campaign after the country turned down some foreign COVID-19 vaccines offered via the U.N.-backed COVAX distribution program.
