North Korea is unlikely to reopen its border with China anytime soon amid ongoing fears over COVID-19, an official from South Korea’s unification ministry said on Tuesday.

The official appeared to be dismissing a recent October report by the Daily NK, which claimed that China and North Korea agreed to resume cross-border train services and tourism this month, citing an unnamed source.

“Recently, there were rumors about how the lockdown at the China-North Korea border will be lifted in November,” the anonymous unification ministry official said in a background briefing for reporters. “But currently, there’s no particular sign of