North Korea has announced a "grave national emergency" after confirming its first official Covid outbreak.
People have been told to stay indoors with a national lockdown put in place by authorities on Thursday.
North Korea said it detected an outbreak of a sub-variant of the highly transmissible Omicron version of Covid, known as BA.2, state media KCNA reported.
"There has been the biggest emergency incident in the country, with a hole in our emergency quarantine front, that has been kept safely over the past two years and three months since February 2020," the state media said.
The report said people in Pyongyang contracted the Omicron variant, without providing details on case numbers or possible sources of infection.
The report was published as the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un chaired a Workers' Party meeting to discuss responses to the first outbreak of the coronavirus.
An extreme Covid policy has been in place from the start of the pandemic to stop the spread of the virus through the country.
It has been claimed that the limited health facilities in the country, and its isolated global position politically, has made Kim Jung-un worried that Covid could have a devastating impact.
North Koreans have been warned during the pandemic that “not even a tiny crack or mistake is allowed when it comes to emergency quarantining.”
Up until now North Korea has said it has successfully kept Covid at bay by sealing its borders.
Lecturer at Harvard Medical School Kee Park, who has worked in North Korea previously said that while the country has proved successful in holding back the virus - it was not sustainable.
He told the Financial Times: “A prolonged lockdown will lead to increased excess deaths — caused by poor nutrition, food shortages, increasing poverty, degradation of health systems and the loss of humanitarian aid — that will eventually exceed the number of deaths caused by the virus itself."
It comes as the extreme Covid lockdowns in China have been criticised.
Footage was shared online that appears to show people in China being bolted into their homes to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Clips circulating on Chinese social media show what appear to be public health workers wearing personal protective equipment using wires and iron bolts to lock people in their homes.
The extreme measure is being applied to people who are unwilling to give up their keys so they can be locked in from the outside, according to the independent publication Caixin Global.
The videos have triggered rare public outrage in China where many have taken to social media to highlight how dangerous it is for people to be trapped in their homes with no way of escaping in an emergency.
