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 North Korea sealed its borders when the coronavirus pandemic began
last year, though officials in neighbouring South Korea and the
United States have cast doubts on its claim to have never had a
case, despite a lack of signs of major outbreaks.
In its latest weekly report for South and East Asia, covering the
period to the end of September, the WHO said it had begun shipments
through China's port city of Dalian, near the border with North
Korea.
"To support DPR Korea with essential COVID-19 medical supplies, WHO
started the shipment through Dalian port, China for strategic
stockpiling and further dispatch," the agency said, using an
abbreviation of the North's official name.
The aid in quarantine in the North includes emergency health kits,
medicines and medical supplies for essential health services, said
Edwin Salvador, the WHO representative to North Korea.
"We are informed that these items, along with others from other U.N.
agencies, remain under quarantine at the seaport," he said in a
statement to Reuters.
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 The supplies went by ship to
the North's port city of Nampho after its public
health ministry told U.N. agencies a few months
ago that some aid stranded in China would be let
through Dalian's port.
"Consequently, WHO was able to transport some of
the items by ship to Nampho seaport," Salvador
added.
By Sept. 23 North Korea had tested at least
40,700 people for the coronavirus with no
positive results, the WHO has said.
Chinese customs data show that maritime shipping
routes between North Korea and China appear to
be opening, but signs of goods movement between
them via land have not been detected, an
official of South Korea's unification ministry,
which handles relations with the North, told the
Yonhap news agency.
(Reporting by Josh Smith, Editing by Robert
Birsel and Clarence Fernandez)
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