North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has reportedly imposed a lockdown on Gaeseong City near the border with South Korea over coronavirus concerns and declared a “maximum national emergency” to contain a potential outbreak.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Sunday that Kim convened an emergency politburo meeting of the Workers’ Party the previous day after a person was found with suspected COVID-19 symptom in the city.

The report said that the person is a “runaway” who had defected to South Korea three years ago and secretly returned across the fortified inter-Korean border last Sunday.

It added that health authorities put the person under quarantine, as well as those who came into contact with the person in the last five days.

The KCNA said that Kim took “the preemptive measure of the total lockdown" on the city on Friday afternoon immediately after receiving the related report.

If that person is officially declared a virus patient, he or she would be the North’s first confirmed coronavirus case. Pyongyang has repeatedly claimed that it does not have a single virus case in the country.