OREANDA-NEWS. North Korea secretly sought international help in connection with the new type of coronavirus pandemic. This was reported on Wednesday by the Financial Times, citing its own sources.

According to the publication, the DPRK is interested in acquiring tests for coronavirus. According to official data, in this country there is not a single case of infection, but experts are wary of this information, doubting Pyongyang's ability to identify the disease with sufficient accuracy, the media writes.

According to one of the newspaper’s sources, at least 590 people in the DPRK were tested for coronavirus, all of them arrived from abroad in January, tests showed negative results. "The government has tests for coronavirus, and they know how to use them, but their number is not enough, so they ask all organizations to support them in this regard", the newspaper quoted the source as saying.