SEOUL, Aug 10 - The Red Cross has sent more than 43,000 volunteers to North Korea, including to the locked-down city of Kaesong, to help fight the novel coronavirus and provide flood assistance, an official with the relief organization said on Monday.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un declared an emergency last month and imposed a lockdown on Kaesong, near the inter-Korean border, after a man who defected to the South in 2017 returned to the city showing coronavirus symptoms.
Heavy rain and flooding in recent days have also sparked concern about crop damage and food supplies in the isolated country.
The volunteers were helping North Koreans in all nine provinces to avoid the virus and protect themselves from floods and landslides, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) spokesman Antony Balmain said.