On July 25, North Korea reported its first suspected case of COVID-19, allegedly carried by a defector returning to the DPRK from South Korea. North Korea claims the defector reached Kaesong City, which it has since put under strict lockdown.

Despite this incident, North Korea still maintains that it has zero cases of the deadly novel coronavirus that has plagued much of the rest of the world. Analysts have long doubted those claims, including observers from China.

However, the DPRK’s first COVID-19 case coincides with a broader deepening of Sino-DPRK relations, possibly leading Beijing to