South Korea’s first COVID-19-related private aid recently arrived in North Korea, Seoul’s unification ministry confirmed on Thursday.

The aid comes from an as-yet-unnamed private organization in South Korea, granted permission by the government in late March to send hand sanitizers worth around 100 million KRW ($80,887) to the North.

“We understand that the sanitizers have arrived in the North earlier this month,” a Ministry of Unification (MOU) official told reporters at a background briefing on Thursday.

The transfer of the aid took comes around a month after Seoul first approved the aid, while another round of aid — to be procured by another private organization — is yet to be sent.

That aid organization — which has also chosen to remain anonymous — was granted permission in mid-April to send 20,000 protective suits worth approximately 200 million KRW ($162,901) to the North.

Both organizations are known to have financed the aid on their own, without government sponsorship.

“No additional approval for delivery [of aid] was made yet,” the MOU official told reporters Thursday.

North Korea officially claims no cases of the novel coronavirus in its territory, while at the same time touting the preparedness of its “emergency quarantine system” to deal with a potential outbreak.

Thursday saw party daily the Rodong Sinmun carry a regular section on domestic anti-epidemic measures, lauding the country’s emergency quarantine works.

Alongside the daily “hygiene propaganda work” reportedly being implemented in North Korean cities, the article said that one clinic in Sinuiju — which lies along the country’s border with China — is producing almost 10 tons of disinfectant a day.

But Pyongyang is also known to have asked international organizations for help in procuring personal protective equipment (PPE) and test kits, despite its claims to be domestically producing much of what it needs to deal with a potential outbreak.

While Russia and China have in recent weeks been reported to have sent some COVID-19 test kits to Pyongyang, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is yet to deliver a shipment of aid to the North — including diagnostic equipment.

A spokesperson for the NGO on Monday told NK News, however, that the organization expects that aid to arrive in Sinuiju in two weeks — far from the first delay since it received a UN sanctions exemption in late February.

“We are working towards having the aid items in Sinuiju in two weeks,” spokesperson Ellie Van Baaren said. “From there the consignment will be subject to disinfection and quarantine process for another 7-10 days before heading to Red Cross Society of DPRK’s Pyongyang warehouse.”

The consignment contains 4000 N95 masks, the spokesperson said, and is also reported to include one RT-PCR diagnostic machine and 10,000 test kits, among other items.

When asked about the whereabouts of the cargoes — reportedly delayed due to procurement hardships and border control —  IFRC said that the items were currently in Beijing.

“To clarify, at this moment the items are not in Dandong,” the spokesperson said. “However, the transportation route from Beijing to DPRK has been confirmed and the arrangements and export clearance are being worked on at the moment.”

The organization is seeking further procurement of additional aid, she said.

“IFRC is also working on procuring 1.5 million N95 masks for global supply covering all regions, not just Asia Pacific or specifically DPRK.”

Edited by Oliver Hotham