North Korea claims it has found its first ever case of COVID-19 and says it has activated a 'maximum emergency' procedure

The government in North Korea said Thursday that it had found its first ever case of COVID-19.

North Korea shut its borders after the novel coronaviruses spread across Asia. It reopened its borders in January.

According to state media, authorities discovered a single case of the Omicron variant in the capital of North Korea on Sunday, and that the country had claimed that not a single case of COVID had reached its borders.

The outlet said that the politburo of North Korea discussed anti-COVID-19 response measures on the same day.

The state epidemic prevention work will be switched over to the maximum emergency epidemic prevention system, according to the government-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper. It's not clear what the emergency system entails.

The World Health Organization said that North Korea had yet to start vaccinations. As of February this year, it is still not accepting vaccine deliveries from aid agencies.

The border closing has caused food shortages in North Korea, despite no cases of COVID-19 being reported until Thursday.

State-run media reported in October that the government had started breeding black swans as a food source to try and solve the hunger crisis.

Kim chastised top officials in a speech in June last year for allowing the country to suffer from the Pandemic.

It is not known if this week's case is actually the country's first case of COVID-19, but North Korea has been vigilant in trying to prevent it.

In July 2020, Kim locked down the entire city of Kaesong and issued a top-class alert after a person suspected of having COVID-19 snuck across the border from South Korea, according to state media.

In August, North Korea announced new hard labor punishments for anyone who met in groups of more than three people.