North Korea on high alert due to yellow dust coming from China

North Korea has warned its citizens to stay indoors over fears that "yellow dust" which blows in from China could infect the population with COVID-19.

Yellow dustcontains harmful ingredientsand directly acts on the human respiratory system.

Yellow dust refers to sand from Mongolian and Chinese deserts that blow into North and South Korea at certain times of the year. It is intermingled with toxic dust that for years has raised health concerns in both countries.

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However, Okryu-gwan, a restaurant in the capital Pyongyang, well known for servingNorth Korea's signature cuisine "Pyongyang naengmyeon",is operating at full capacity and is violating social distancing norms imposed due to the surge in coronavirus cases.

The famous restaurant is cramped up withcustomers without any booths to separate one from another. It is still working at a full capacity at a time when most eateries in the world are shutting down amid concerns of a second wave.

Jong Sol Hung, one of therestaurant'smanagers, said"We will continue to work more closely on our emergency quarantine projects, while serving the people more actively, and thereby do our best to inspire the strong will of our people by the time the 80-day campaign is over."

Despite claiming the country has no cases of coronavirus, there are deep fears about COVID-19 in North Korea and leader Kim Jong-un has been holding high-level meetings to ensure tight restrictions remain in place.

Analysts have said it is highly unlikely that North Korea has not experienced any coronavirus cases at all.

The behavior ofKim Jong-un's regime raises the question that what is likely to spread the Wuhan virus more?

Awave of yellow dust from miles awaybased on unproven science or hundreds of people packed into a single restaurant.