Kim Jong-un’s North Korea claims to have zero cases of coronavirus, but with a weak health system some experts doubt this is possible

North Korea closed its border with China on January 22, one day before the coronavirus epicentre Wuhan was placed under lockdown, and a week before the US and Australia moved to close their borders to Chinese visitors.

Did Pyongyang know something about the virus that other countries didn’t, or were they just reacting quickly to what was then an emerging public health threat?

As with a lot of things to do with North Korea, it’s very hard to know — it is one of the most secretive countries in the world.

But according to state-controlled media, whatever North Korea is doing to combat COVID-19 seems to be working: it claims to have zero cases of the infection within its borders.

“I am suspicious of that zero,” W Courtland Robinson, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Centre for Humanitarian Health, told the ABC.

An early and assertive response

North Korea surprised many when it moved early to close its borders with China in late January.

Citizens of mainland China have historically been the largest cohort of tourists to North Korea, providing an important source of foreign currency given the impacts of ongoing trade sanctions.

Internal travel has been limited within North Korea in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Foreigners in the country and citizens returning from abroad have been placed under strict quarantine.

Public sites have been closed, and the wearing of face masks is being promoted — the young and the elderly are being told to stay home, and schools and shops have been shut.

While these early actions were decisive, Mr Robinson said other aspects of North Korea’s public health response remained unknown.

It has also been a notably different response from North Korea compared to previous pandemic events.

“North Korea has had experience dealing with SARS and Ebola and, though they had no outbreak of either in the coun