The Red Cross said on Monday it had obtained an exemption to United Nations sanctions against North Korea to provide testing kits and medical equipment against a possible coronavirus outbreak.
"The potential for an outbreak of COVID-19 in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea poses a threat to millions of people who are already in need of humanitarian assistance," the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said in a statement.
IFRC's Asia Pacific chief Xavier Castellanos was quoted as saying that the sanctions exemption was "a life-saving intervention and an important measure to ensure that sanctions do not bear a negative impact on the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea."