북한, 코로나19 전파 위험에 수도 평양 '준봉쇄령'<br /><br />North Korea has put its capital Pyeongyang under virtual semi-lockdown amid concerns over a COVID-19 outbreak. .<br />Its official Rodong Sinmun reports that quarantine checkpoints have been reinforced at subways stations, bus terminals and city entry points in Pyeongyang.<br />Our North Korean affairs correspondent Hong Yoo reports.<br />Guard posts for disease prevention have been set up in Pyeongyang at the entrances to the city, the subway stations and the bus terminals.<br />People coming into Pyeongyang must get their temperatures checked and vehicles must be sanitized.<br />Such intensified disease prevention measures come after the regime imposed an "maximum emergency alert" following the return to North Korea of a defector who was allegedly showing symptoms of COVID-19.<br />The North's state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported Friday that 40 new posts for disease prevention have been set up in Pyeongyang.<br />The regime is closely monitoring people, vehicles, and shipments coming in and out of the city.<br />The North's state-run Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday that North Korea's second-in-command Choe Ryong-hae conducted an emergency virus inspection of Gaeseong, the city where the North Korean defector returned to from the South.<br />Choe inspected virus prevention efforts in Gaeseong, which has been on lockdown since last Friday.<br />He ordered local officials to make sure food and medical supplies are provided to residents and that strict containment measures are in place.<br />North Korea continues to claim that it hasn't had an outbreak of COVID-19.<br />Meanwhile, in a meeting with NGOs conducting health and medical programs in North Korea on Friday, South Korea's unification minister Lee In-young promised to support the NGOs' efforts to expand cross-border exchanges.<br />"We want to immediately resume humanitarian exchanges and cooperation with North Korea. I think there definitely are things that we can work on right now."<br />He said he has taken the first step by approving an aid organization's plan to send around 668-thousand U.S. dollars of disinfectants, protective suits and COVID-19 test kits to North Korea on Thursday.<br />Hong Yoo, Arirang News.<br />
