A North Korean official was shot dead for going to a public bath while he was meant to be in quarantine for coronavirus, it has been reported.
The trade official was arrested and immediately executed after risking the spread of the deadly disease, according to South Korean media reports.
Sources said the official had been placed in isolation after travelling to China with the country’s leader Kim Jong-un, reports Metro.
He is said to have ignored the dictator’s threat to ‘rule by military law’ against anyone who left quarantine without approval.
North Korea has not yet confirmed any cases of the virus, but has taken drastic measures to stop it spreading over its 880 mile-long border with China.
The secretive kingdom has imposed an unconditional quarantine on anyone who has recently been to the neighbouring country, or has been in contact with Chinese people.
Another official is said to have been exiled to a North Korean farm after trying to cover up his travels to China, where coronavirus emerged.
He was reportedly a member of the isolated country’s National Security Agency.
Claims of officials being purged or executed are common in the totalitarian regime, but are hard to verify because of censorship laws imposed on state-controlled media.
The UN and WHO have cast doubt on claims that no-one has been infected with the virus, which has spread to at least 25 countries worldwide.
Some South Korean media outlets say there have been multiple cases and even possible deaths from disease in the North.
Faced with the global threat of the epidemic, Pyongyang announced yesterday that quarantines had been extended to 30 days, beyond the 14-day period recommended by health bosses.
Government officials, citizens and foreigners living in North Korea were expected to obey it ‘unconditionally’.
In further drastic measures, state media reported that North Korea’s Red Cross Society had been deployed to ‘relevant areas’ around the country to monitor people with possible symptoms, including households in remote areas that are not easily reached.
KCNA said: ‘They are conducting information activities in various forms and by various methods at public places to introduce common medical knowledge about the epidemic and encourage people to give fuller play to the noble moral traits of helping and leading each other forward.’