UN panel allows Germany to send COVID

In this 2020 December file photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, workers disinfect a public facility in Dancheon, North Korea. Yonhap

A U.N. Security Council panel has approved sanctions exemptions for a German project to provide North Korea with medical equipment for the prevention of COVID-19, its website showed Thursday.

The exemptions will allow Germany to export medical equipment to prevent and control the coronavirus, including the delivery of "six units of a Rotor-Disc 100 Starter Kit" for PCR testing to the North's Ministry of Public Health, according to the website of the North Korea sanctions committee.

The sanctions waiver will be in place for nine months until April 23, 2022.

In an approval letter published on its website, the committee stressed that U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang are "not intended to bear a negative impact" on the North Korean people.

North Korea has claimed to be coronavirus-free but has taken relatively swift and tough measures against the pandemic, such as imposing strict border controls since early last year.

It remains unclear whether the supplies will be delivered to the North in time, due to the tightened border controls. (Yonhap)