NKorea's escalating virus response raises fear of outbreak

SEOUL, South Korea: North Korea is quarantining thousands of people and shipping food and other aid to a southern city locked down over coronavirus worries, officials said, as the country's response to a suspected case reinforces doubt about its longstanding claim to be virus-free.

But amid the outside skepticism and a stream of North Korean propaganda glorifying its virus efforts, an exchange between Pyongyang and the United Nations is providing new clarity — and actual numbers — about what might be happening in the North, which has closed its borders and cut travel — never a free-flowing stream — by outsider monitors and journalists.