There are no cases of coronavirus in North Korea, despite claims from South Korean media claiming otherwise.
That's according to an official from the World Health Organisation (WHO), who said "there are no signals" to indicate there are COVID-19 cases in the country.
Dr. Mike Ryan, head of WHO's emergencies programme, said they had prioritised aid for North Korea, and a shipment of protective equipment was ready to be shipped.
Earlier, South Korean media claimed there were multiple cases and possible deaths from the virus in North Korea.
On Tuesday, the official newspaper of North Korea's ruling party reiterated that the country had "no confirmed case of the new coronavirus so far".
Meanwhile, South Korea reported 15 new cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases to 46.
The virus has so far killed more than 2,000 people in mainland China and spread to more than two dozen countries.
Hijackers being seated next to some of the scores of passengers taken hostage after insurgents took control of a train in southwest Pakistan, has complicating rescue efforts, security sources said on Wednesday.
The captain of a ship, who has been arrested in connection with a crash into a US flagged tanker off the coast of England is a Russian national, the German company which owns the vessel said on Wednesday.
A Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih killed a 47-year-old woman and wounded at least nine other people, Dnipropetrovsk regional governor Serhiy Lysak said on Wednesday.
Yemen's Houthis said on Tuesday they would resume attacks on Israeli ships passing through the Red and Arabian seas, the Bab al-Mandab Strait and the Gulf of Aden, ending a period of relative calm starting in January with the Gaza ceasefire.
US President Donald Trump's increased tariffs on all US steel and aluminum imports took effect on Wednesday, stepping up a campaign to reorder global trade norms in favour of the US that drew swift retaliation from Europe.