A UN rights expert called Monday for North Korea to provide access to outside medical experts amid concern over the impact the new coronavirus could have on the malnourished population.
North Korea "should allow full and unimpeded access to medical experts and humanitarian actors", said Tomas Ojea Quintana, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the country.
He also called for a "review" of the punishing sanctions imposed on North Korea, insisting that "further isolation of the country is not the answer."
North Korea has not confirmed a single case of COVID-19, which has infected more than 110,000 people and caused over 3,800 deaths worldwide, including a major outbreak in neighbouring South Korea.
The country's leader Kim Jong Un warned last month of "serious consequences" if the virus reached his country.
The country, which already has to contend with towering international sanctions, has imposed strict rules including closing its borders and putting thousands of its own people into isolation.
The UN estimates more than 43 percent of the population there is malnourished and many lack access to adequate water and sanitation, and Quintana voiced deep concern at the prospect of a COVID-19 outbreak in North Korea.
"Many North Koreans are malnourished, suffering from stunted growth, and thus more vulnerable if infected," he told the UN Human Rights Council.
At the same time, he said, the country "has only limited medical capabilities", with many of its most critical health care needs provided by international NGOs.
Speaking to journalists, he also voiced alarm about the situation in the country's network of prison camps. People there would be at "critical risk if there is an outbreak in the country", he said.
A landmark 2014 report by a UN Commission of Inquiry accused North Korea of "systematic, widespread and gross" human rights abuses, estimating it was holding up to 120,000 in the secret camps.
Quintana said he did not have information about the current number of prisoners.
Faced with a potential COVID-19 outbreak, he urged Pyongyang to "relax restrictions on access to information" and to open its doors to international medical teams.
He also called on the international community to reach out to "offer medical and scientific assistance" to help North Korea prepare and deal with a possible outbreak.
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