Almost 5,000 people have contracted COVID-19 in the last week in a Russian region bordering North Korea, posing problems for plans to restart long-stalled cross-border trade, according to NK News analysis. 

Cases rose for 11 days straight through Thursday in the Primorsky Krai region of Far East Russia at a rate of over 600 people per day this week, data from the Russian health ministry shows, though they dropped slightly on Friday.

This comes as satellite imagery taken in recent weeks shows North Korea has continued to preparea still-unopened import disinfection center near the Russian border to process and