Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was last week granted an exemption from international sanctions that will allow it to send equipment needed for the diagnosis and management of the novel coronavirus to North Korea, it emerged Tuesday.

A letter posted to the website of the UN’s 1718 committee — responsible for overseeing sanctions on the DPRK — dated February 20 revealed that MSF will now be permitted to provide North Korea’s health ministry with “essential Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and diagnostic items.”

MSF, also known as Doctors without Borders, will send goggles of different types, stethoscopes, swabs, and medical examination equipment worth a total of €13,700 ($14,891.42), the letter said, as well as other items for which the price is still to be confirmed.

The goods, it continued, will “enable prompt and proper diagnosis and management of cases of COVID-2019 should these arise and develop in the country.”

The approval is the second of its kind intended to provide North Korea with equipment aimed at dealing with a potential outbreak of coronavirus in its territory.

This week also saw the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) win a sanctions exemption allowing it to bring test kits, gloves, and masks into the country.

And while North Korea has repeatedly insisted that “the novel coronavirus has not entered our country,” reports from inside the country have in recent weeks appeared to suggest that those claims may be false.

The country has also in recent weeks imposed strict quarantine and hygiene-related measures, imposing a 30-day quarantine, cautioning against public gatherings, closing down air and land transport, and placing diplomats in Pyongyang under a virtual house arrest.

Experts largely agree that North Korea remains uniquely susceptible to a major epidemic, given the dilapidated state of its healthcare sector and the widespread malnutrition faced by its people.

“Whether or not COVID19 cases exist in North Korea may not be proven for some time as there is uncertainty among humanitarian and medical professionals as to whether North Korea has the technical capabilities to accurately test for the disease,” Keith Luse, Executive Director of the National Committee on North Korea, told journalists in an email.

“Presently the Dandong-Sinuiji connection is the only allowed point of entry into North Korea,” he continued. “Neither planes nor ships carrying medical supplies are allowed to arrive.”

Edited by Oliver Hotham