The country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said 187,800 people were in quarantine, and state TV showed him wearing a mask for the first time.​SEOUL — The coronavirus has been spreading across North Korea “at an explosive rate” since late last month, killing six people and leaving 187,800 people in quarantine, the country’s state media reported on Friday.The country’s health officials made the rare admission of an emerging public health crisis while its leader, Kim Jong-un, was visiting the national disease-control headquarters on Thursday, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said.In a sign of growing urgency, the state-run Central Television for the first time showed Mr. Kim wearing a mask during a Workers’ Party meeting.The fact that the virus was spreading across the country meant that North Korea had “loopholes in its epidemiological system,” Mr. Kim was quoted as saying.North Korea said it had learned of its first outbreak after health officials on Sunday tested people in an unidentified organization in Pyongyang, the capital, who showed symptoms such as fever. They were confirmed to be infected with the BA.2 subvariant of the virus, it said.The country declared a “maximum emergency” and ordered all cities and counties in the nation of 25 million to lock down to fight the spread.North Korea’s admission of an outbreak was an abrupt change for the secretive country, which had long insisted it had no cases of the virus that first emerged in neighboring China more than two years ago. Outside experts had been skeptical, however, citing a lack of extensive Covid testing and the North’s threadbare public health system.Mr. Kim said 350,000 people had been found to have a fever since late April, including 18,000 on Thursday. He added that 162,200 people had been successfully treated. The reports on the outbreak have so far been vague​, without clarifying, for example, how many of the 350,000 people found with fever have tested positive for the virus.“Like any other data from North Korea, the figures are up to debate, and we cannot fully trust them,” said Ahn Kyung-su, who operates the Seoul-based DPRKHealth.org, a website and network of public health experts who study North Korea. “But what’s clear is that North Korea has the Covid phenomenon, and by publicizing those figures, North Korea appears to be sending out signals that it is finally ready to accept Covid-related aid from the outside.”So far, North Korea has not accepted any pandemic-related humanitarian aid, including vaccine donations from world health organizations. South Korean officials hope that humanitarian shipments, including Covid-19 vaccines, could help restart diplomatic dialogue between North Korea and the United States and allies.The danger posed by the Covid outbreak is greater in North Korea than in most other nations because most of its people are unvaccinated. Outside health experts have long questioned the North’s ability to fight a large-scale outbreak, although its regime is capable of imposing severe controls on residents’ movement.The outbreak, if not controlled quickly, could increase the strain on the country’s economy, which already has been hit hard by years of United Nations sanctions and its decision two years ago to close its border with China, its only major trading partner, to prevent the spread of the virus.Hours after admitting to the outbreak on Thursday, North Korea launched three ballistic missiles from near Pyongyang toward the sea off its east coast, the South Korean military said. It was the North’s 16th missile test this year and an indication that it was pressing ahead with weapons tests despite the threat of the virus.

SEOUL — North Korea on Thursday reported its first outbreak of the coronavirus, declaring a “maximum emergency” and ordering all of its cities and counties to lock down to fight the spread.On Sunday, health officials tested residents in an unidentified organization in Pyongyang, the capital, who showed symptoms such as fever, and confirmed that they were infected with a subvariant, known as BA.2, of the Omicron variant of the virus, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said. The news agency did not reveal how many people were infected.The report was the first time that the secretive country has confirmed any Covid-19 cases since the virus emerged in neighboring China more than two years ago.North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, convened the Political Bureau of the ruling Workers’ Party on Thursday to discuss the crisis, the news agency said.An undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency showing the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, convening what it said was a Workers’ Party meeting on an outbreak of the coronavirus.Korea Central News Agency, via ReutersMr. Kim ordered “all the cities and counties to thoroughly lock themselves down” to help prevent the virus from spreading, and that factory workers and farmers continue to work but in isolation.The news agency said Mr. Kim had also called for national unity at a time of state emergency, telling his people that “an enemy worse than the malicious virus is unscientific fear and a lack of faith and will.”Mr. Kim urged his country to continue to push forward with the bold five-year economic development plan he declared during a Workers’ Party congress in January last year. Under that plan, North Koreans have been building residential districts in Pyongyang and greenhouse complexes in provinces.Until Thursday, North Korea had publicly insisted that there were no cases of the virus in the country, although outside experts were skeptical, citing the country’s threadbare public health system and lack of extensive testing. North Korea has also rejected outside offers of pandemic-related humanitarian aid.Officials in South Korea have hoped that humanitarian shipments, such as Covid-19 vaccines, could help restart the stalled dialogue between North Korea and the United States and allies.It was unclear if the outbreak would change the North’s stance on humanitarian aid.Turkmenistan and several small island nations, such as Tuvalu and Nauru, had also reported having no coronavirus cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.North Korea had enforced some of the world’s harshest restrictions to contain the virus.In 2020, it created a buffer zone along the border with China, issuing a shoot-to-kill order to stop unauthorized crossings, according to South Korean and U.S. officials. Also that year, when a man from South Korea defected to the North, North Korea declared a national emergency for fear he might have brought the virus.