The coronavirus pandemic has likely taken a heavy toll on North Korea, forcing leader Kim Jong Un to avoid public activities and his people into panic buying for daily necessities, South Korea's spy agency told lawmakers Wednesday.
Although North Korea has taken intense quarantine measures, it maintains there are no domestic infections. Many outside experts are skeptical and warn that an epidemic could be dire because of the North's fragile health care system.
South Korea's National Intelligence Service told a closed-door parliamentary committee in Seoul that the pandemic is one of the reasons why Kim Jong Un has made much fewer public appearances this year, according to Kim Byung Kee, one of the lawmakers who attended the spy agency meeting.