North Korea appears to have lifted its face mask mandate this month.

Footage aired on Monday by the state broadcaster, Korean Central Television, showed hundreds of young people in a theater in North Hamgyong Province on Sunday without masks, a stark contrast to a similar event last Friday during which all participants wore masks.

Photos carried by the Rodong Sinmun, the official newspaper of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, show citizens going maskless from this month except at some sites related to COVID-19.

The U.S.-based Free Radio Asia reported on Tuesday that authorities lifted the mask mandate this month, quoting a North Korean resident in North Pyongan Province.

The source reportedly said that last Friday, the North’s central emergency quarantine command issued an order lifting the mandate from July 1, adding that the order was disseminated to North Korean residents, factories, businesses and organizations through the local branches of the command.

[Photo : YONHAP News]