PYONGYANG, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Thursday confirmed its first-ever COVID-19 case in over two years, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.

The state media said samples were collected from a group of patients in the capital on Sunday and a subvariant of the highly transmissible Omicron version of the coronavirus, known as BA.2, was detected.

The KCNA called it "the most severe national emergency incident."