North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (center), attends a meeting of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea in Pyongyang, North Korea on May 12, 2022. The meeting was convened after the first-ever COVID-19 case in over two years was confirmed in the country, according to media reports. Photo: VCG

North Korea on Friday reported the first death from COVID-19 and said more than 350,000 people got fever since late April as COVID-19 "explosively spread nationwide," as the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that its leader Kim Jong-un visited the country's national emergency quarantine command center on Thursday to inspect antivirus efforts.

Since the end of April, an unknown fever broke out across the country and infected 350,000 people, according to the KCNA. It added that 162,200 people have healed completely. On May 12 alone, some 18,000 people were found with fever nationwide, and as of now up to 187,800 people are being isolated and treated, it said. Six persons died, and one of them tested positive for the Omicron variant, according to the KCNA.

China stands ready to provide full support to North Korea to aid its combat against COVID-19 epidemic at any time, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Thursday.

Zhao made the remarks in response to inquiries by the South Korean Yonhap News Agency reporter at the daily press conference on Thursday, following reports that North Korea, for the first time since the outbreak of pandemic in early 2020, confirmed detection of local infection case. 

China and North Korea are not only good neighbors linked by mountains and rivers, but also have maintained a good tradition of helping each other. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, North Korea has been firmly supporting China's combat against the virus, for which China is grateful, Zhao said. 

As a comrade, neighbor and friend, China stands ready to help North Korea with combating the epidemic at any time, he noted. 

According to the North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), samples collected from fever-ridden patients on Sunday in Pyongyang were identical to omicron. 

On Thursday, the KCNA reported that in connection with the "grave situation" such as the inroads of stealth Omicron variant into the country amid the ever-worsening worldwide public health crisis, the country's state epidemic prevention work shall be switched over to the maximum emergency epidemic prevention system.

"The state emergency epidemic prevention command shall take practical measures to switch over from the state epidemic prevention work to the maximum emergency epidemic prevention system and strictly control and command the overall epidemic prevention work of the country," the North Korean official KCNA reported in English. 

North Korean top leader Kim Jong-un called on at a meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea on Thursday that all the cities and counties of the whole country should thoroughly lock down their areas and organize work and production after closing each working unit, production unit and living unit from each other so as to flawlessly and perfectly block the spread vacuum of the malicious virus, KCNA reported. 

The source of the viral transmission has yet to be determined nor announced by the North Korean authorities as of press time. It is also unclear how many cases were identified.

Lü Chao, an expert on the Korean Peninsula at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Thursday that as long as North Korea requests help, China would not hesitate to provide full package of aids including medicine, protective outfits, testing toolkits and also vaccines to the good neighbor. 

China could also dispatch epidemiologists and medical expert group to Pyongyang if requested, to help the neighbor's fight against the virus, he said.

However, good news is that the country has rather effective state governance capability and local people would strictly cooperate with and observe the epidemic control measures. Besides, its neighboring country China has rich experience in controlling and combating the novel coronavirus and China is always ready to answer to North Korea's call for help, he said.

Observers also called for international support and relaxation of existed sanctions against Pyongyang for the sake of humanitarian spirits, and cease of creating new sanctions on North Korea.

US pushed for new UN sanctions on North Korea on Wednesday at a UN Security Council meeting, which met with China and Russia's strong opposition, as they wanted to see new talks rather than more punishment.