North Korea, which has yet to report a single case of the coronavirus, has ramped up production of masks and is urging its people to take preventive measures, to keep the virus out.

Resident foreign diplomats in Pyongyang on Monday departed the North Korean capital after more than a month under quarantine.

And while the outbreak has severely disrupted military operations in South Korea with the cancellation of joint exercises with the US, North Korea has conducted short-range weapons tests, twice in the space of a week, after a lull of three months.

Al Jazeera's Rob McBride reports from Seoul.