North Korean leader Kim Jong-un presided over an executive policy council meeting on Thursday and ordered special food supplies and emergency cash aid for the residents of Gaeseong as the city has been sealed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency said Thursday that the situation in the city was analyzed and measures were discussed to provide food and money to ensure the residents’ livelihoods. Orders were then given to the related agencies. 

North Korea is exerting all-out quarantine efforts against the coronavirus, after Pyongyang announced that a man, who had defected to South Korea in 2017, was found with symptoms in Gaeseong.

Following a lockdown order of the border city late last month, the North has sent around 550-thousand units of daily necessities and quarantine-related goods to Gaeseong.

[Photo : YONHAP News]