North Korea said on Tuesday there were no new deaths among fever patients in the country, the first time since it flagged a COVID-19 outbreak nearly two weeks ago, adding that it was seeing a "stable" downward trend in pandemic-related cases.

The COVID-19 wave, which North Korea first declared on May 12, has fueled concerns over a lack of vaccines, inadequate medical infrastructure and a potential food crisis in the country of 25 million.

But Pyongyang said it was reporting "successes" in stemming the spread of the virus, and that there was no new fever death reported as of Monday evening despite adding 134,510 new patients.