North Korea’s schoolchildren will resume classes in early June, state-run radio reported Monday, following two months of extended vacation as part of the country’s continued preventive measures against COVID-19.

“Appropriate quarantine measures are being taken [ahead] of the start of the classes of the new school year in the elementary, middle, and higher middle schools and the resumption of the operation of kindergartens and day care centers starting early June,” the state-run Korean Central Broadcasting Committee said Monday in a report carried by South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.

“Education and childcare institutions [authorities] have been asked to furnish thermometers and hand sanitizing equipment at the gates and all the classrooms and offices,” it continued, adding that teachers and workers were required to “strictly abide by the anti-epidemic order.”

Pyongyang is working to guarantee sufficient disinfectant for school buildings and on “holding check-ups” for children attending kindergarten, it went on.

The radio broadcast did not share a specific date for the first day of school.

South Korean Ministry of Unification (MOU) spokesperson Yoh Sangkey later in the day confirmed the reporting, saying the move should be seen in light of Pyongyang’s long-standing claim to have detected no cases of COVID-19 in its territory.

North Korean state media in late February reported that school vacation had been “extended” in line with the country’s “national emergency quarantine system” implemented across the country to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Spring semester in North Korea has since 1996 started on April 1, according to the MOU.

While North Korean students have been required to stay home for the last few months, state media has in recent weeks reported that many are continuing to take classes remotely through the use of “tele-education” technology.

April saw externally-focused DPRK state-run outlets report that some of high schools and universities had partly resumed classes, though that news was not featured in the country’s domestic press.

Monday’s news on the imminent reopening of schools, too, is yet to appear in any internally-circulated media.

Edited by Oliver Hotham