For months, North Korea shared its COVID-19 data with the World Health Organization (WHO), all while barring international travelers from entering the country and monitoring the situation for themselves. But in recent weeks, specific North Korean testing and quarantine numbers have vanished from WHO reports, leading some experts to wonder what’s going on in an increasingly-isolated and poverty-stricken country.  

“Sharing of data is a crucial part of pandemic control,” said Kee B. Park, a lecturer on global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School. “It obviously prevents WHO from fully understanding the ongoing situation.”