SEOUL, South Korea — The United States said it would approve humanitarian assistance to North Korea to help international aid agencies fight the coronavirus there, amid fears that the impoverished country may be hiding an outbreak.

North Korea has not reported any cases of the new coronavirus. But in the past week, some South Korean news reports, citing unnamed sources within the secretive North, said there had been deaths that were suspected to be related to the virus. The reports could not be confirmed.

North Korea shares a 930-mile border with China, where the coronavirus emerged. It has since spread to numerous countries; more than 1,500 deaths have been reported, almost all of them in China.

North Korea has taken aggressive steps to keep the virus out, including suspending all flights and trains to and from China. But the border has long been porous for smugglers, who ferry goods across the shallow river frontier that separates the two countries.