shot by a chinese border guard while attempting to cross the tumen river into china tested positive for the virus, and was under quarantine in a chinese hospital. on 11 april, kim jong-un presided over a meeting of the politburo of the workers' party of korea. the meeting adopted a joint resolution by the central committee, state affairs commission, and the cabinet, "on more thoroughly taking national measures for protecting the life and safety of our people from the worldwide epidemic disease". the resolution called to take strict national countermeasures to thoroughly check the inroads of the virus due to the steady spread of the epidemic. from mid to late april, restrictions on foreigners travelling in pyongyang were relaxed, nampo harbour was reopened to container ships, and the 14th supreme people's assembly with hundreds of delegates was held without the wearing of face masks. on 23 april, us analyst website 38 north reported that north korea's early and extensive response appeared to be successful in containing the virus. the british embassy in pyongyang was closed temporarily from 27 may and all diplomatic staff left the country. according to a statement from the british foreign office, this was due to restrictions on entry to the country, making it a challenge to rotate staff and sustain the operation of the embassy. on 19 june, an update to the who from the ministry of public health affirmed that all the educational institutions in the country were now open. the underground network that assists defectors in escaping north korea was reported as being almost unable to operate amidst the strict controls implemented to stop the virus, and defection attempts were largely suspended. defection rates had been declining already, probably due to increased security under the administrations of kim jong-un in north korea and xi jinping in china. between the start of april and end of june 2020, only 12 north korean defectors entered south korea, compared with 320 during the same period in 2019. july–december 2020 kaesong, where a suspected case was reported in july 2020 on 1 july, a who official said a ban on public gatherings remained, and people were required to wear masks in public. kcna and rodong sinmun released images from a meeting on 2 july with kim jong-un and dozens of officials, none of whom were shown wearing masks. according to dr. edwin salvador, the who's representative in north korea, 922 people in the country were tested for covid-19 and all had tested negative. on 25 july, kim jong-un attended an emergency meeting after a suspected covid-19 case was reported in the city of kaesong. kim declared a state of emergency and imposed a lockdown on the city. the suspected case was reported to be an individual who had defected to south korea three years earlier, before swimming back to north korea in july (a rare case of "re-defection"). according to a south korean senior health official, the individual was neither registered as a covid-19 patient, nor classified as someone who came in contact with other patients. two close contacts of the defector in south korea tested negative for the virus. on 5 august, salvador said the returning defector was tested but the "results were inconclusive". on 14 august, the three week lockdown in kaesong and nearby areas was lifted by kim jong-un, after "the scientific verification and guarantee by a professional anti-epidemic organisation". according to south korean intelligence, in august a north korean official was executed for violating covid-19 restrictions by bringing goods to sinuiju from across the chinese border. south korean intelligence officials also said that the north korean government had locked down pyongyang, and had refused to accept 110,000 tons of rice from china for fear of letting the virus into the country. expatriates in north korea became concerned about getting treatment for covid-19, since the north korean medical system was limited, and it was difficult to seek treatment in china due to travel restrictions. according to nk news, on 22 september, the crew of a north korean patrol boat killed a south korean fisheries officer whom they encountered off their coast, and then torched his flotation device in compliance with covid-19 emergency orders. kim apologized to south korea for the incident. in october, north korean media said that the world was looking at north korea with envy because of its virus-free status, but at the same time warned against complacency. in the same month, there was a spike in people tested and quarantined, possibly related to celebrations on 10 october. in november 2020, daily nk reported that there had been a spike of residents in quarantine facilities with covid-19 symptoms, and that at least 80,000 non-military residents had been quarantined in total by then, although the country continued to maintain that it did not have any confirmed cases. a source to the daily nk reported that some residents were suspecting a government cover-up, and that doctors were being ordered to not discuss covid-19 as to not "damage the image" of kim jong-un. 2021 by january 2021, north korea's borders had been closed for one year. according to south korean analysis, trade between north korea and china had fallen by 76%. in march, north korea decided not to participate in the 2020 summer olympics in tokyo due to concerns over potential exposure to covid-19. as a result, the olympic committee of the democratic people's republic of korea was suspended by the international olympic committee (ioc) through the end of 2022, thus prohibiting the country from participating in the 2022 winter olympics in beijing. in april 2021, russian diplomats in pyongyang said that north korea had "total restrictions that are unprecedented in their severity", as well as severe shortages. according to the diplomatic mission, many foreign diplomats had left the country, leaving less than 290 foreigners in north korea, including only nine ambassadors and four chargés d'affaires. later that month, kim jong-un said north korea was facing its "worst-ever situation" in reference to the economic downturn due to covid-19; he called for the party to wage another arduous march to fight the severe economic difficulties. however, the translation as "worst-ever situation" has been disputed by some analysts as an exaggeration, with the original speech (극난한) translatable as simply a very hard, or difficult situation. the translation as "worst-ever" had also been previously used in the 8th congress of the workers' party of korea to refer to the past five years, yet the economy is in nowhere near as much difficulty as in the 1990s. similarly, in the north korean context, "arduous march" does not directly refer to economic hardship, but a firm resolve to carry out tasks of the party. in june 2021, kim jong-un called a meeting to sack several officials over a "severe" covid-19 breach and warned of a great crisis caused by the pandemic in the country. despite this, the recently demoted pak jong-chon was promoted up to secretary of the party central committee, and rejoined the politburo as a full member. american activist tim a. peters said that there were signs of "enormous stress on the north korean population" due to the pandemic and associated restrictions, and that he suspected covid-19 was spreading within the country despite the lack of confirmed cases. in july 2021, north korea rejected shipments of around two million doses of the oxford-astrazeneca vaccine, citing concerns over potential side effects. the same month, russia also offered to supply the country with its own sputnik v vaccine on multiple occasions. in september 2021, the country rejected three million doses of the chinese coronavac vaccine which were offered to it under the covax programme, asking that the doses be reallocated to other nations. on 27 august, the who reported that 37,291 people with flu-like symptoms had so far been tested for covid-19 in the country, with all testing negative. in october 2021, it was reported by nk news that money coupons were becoming widespread in north korea, due to covid-19 controls reportedly causing cash printing issues. it was also noted that early signs of inflation were present in north korea. international rail transport resumption in january 2022, the first freight trains between north korea and china resumed after a two-year hold. uiju air base was converted to a cargo decontamination facility for containers brought in by freight trains. a south korean–based humanitarian organisation, the inter-korean economic cooperation research center (남북경제협력연구소, ikecrc), received a un sanctions exemption to send 20 thermal imaging cameras to north phyongan province for detection of fever symptoms, while the who was granted 18 more months to deliver shipments for stalled projects. in november 2022, use of the rail korea–russia friendship bridge resumed. north korea announces outbreak first confirmed cases: may–june 2022 on 12 may 2022, the north korean government declared a "severe national emergency", after samples from an unspecified number of people tested positive for covid-19. this marked the first time that north korea had publicly acknowledged the existence of covid-19 cases in the country. the korean central news agency stated that supreme leader kim jong-un had called an emergency meeting of the politburo of the workers' party of korea after learning of the samples, which were sourced from residents of pyongyang and had symptoms "consistent with" the omicron variant. the politburo recommended the implementation of a "maximum" emergency quarantine, to include nationwide lockdowns, border restrictions, and restrictions on group sizes in workplaces. during the politburo meeting, the previous anti-pandemic strategy was criticised. nk news reported that the entire country had been placed under a lockdown two days prior, though farmers in border regions close to south korea were seen still tending the fields. it was later reported by state media that at least one north korean died after testing positive, and that 187,800 people are now under quarantine due to "fever". on 13 may, kim jong-un held a meeting at the state emergency epidemic prevention headquarters, where he called for further anti-pandemic work, lockdowns, and isolation of people with suspected cases. the effort to stop the spread was declared to be a supreme task of the party. the "fever" was noted to have started spreading since late april 2022, with pyongyang being the centre of the spread. in line with the politburo decision, various enterprises continued to operate normally while organising emergency quarantine procedures. various major projects, such as the 10,000 residential flats project, were to continue as before. also, on 13 may, north korean state media reported 6 deaths and 350,000 cases of fevers. on 14 may, an additional 174,440 cases of fever were reported, with 81,430 recoveries and 21 deaths. during the politburo conference, kim jong-un stated that the current situation was equal to the turmoil from the founding of the country, but the situation could be overcome with strong governance over the situation. according to the report, cases of the virus spreading between different regions had reduced. emergency drug distribution was also ordered to commence in accordance with the anti-pandemic plan. on 17 may, it was reported that during the 24-hour period from 15 to 16 may, 269,510 cases of fever were recorded in the country, 170,460 people were cured, and 6 more died. the total officially reported number of cases reached 1,483,060. out of these, 819,090 recovered from the illness, 663,910 were receiving treatment, and 56 died. while case numbers continued to rise in the provincial regions, case numbers began to fall in pyongyang. according to kctv, out of the 50 deaths reported up to 17 may, 25 were due to inappropriate usage of medicine. on 19 may, 262,270 cases of fever were reported, with one death. regional treatment centres had also been set up, with large increases in the number of infected in the south pyongan and south hamgyong provinces. on 20 may, 168 confirmed cases of covid-19 were reported, with cases of reported fever nearing 2 million, according to nk news. on 3 june, nk news reported that gavi had received information that north korea had started its vaccination rollout with chinese vaccines, with an anonymous source telling radio free asia that the first doses were being administered to soldiers working in the construction sector. from around june, vehicles had started reappearing in satellite imagery in pyongyang, which suggested that the lockdown was at least being partially lifted