Russia has sent 25,000 tonnes of wheat in humanitarian aid to North Korea, its embassy in Pyongyang said in a Facebook post.

The embassy said the ship's crew had since been placed in quarantine and the cargo was unloaded from the ship in an isolated area of the port.

"We had to watch the great teamwork of North Korean longshoremen and railroad workers from afar," said a translation of the statement by the TASS agency.

"We could see that they were doing their best to make sure that not a single grain was lost."

A UN report published in April warned that some 10 million North Koreans were facing severe food shortages.

It's not clear if food supply has been affected by the virus outbreak - Pyongyang maintains that there are no cases in the country.

BBC