North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered a tightening of state emergency anti-coronavirus systems in the face of the worldwide pandemic, as he presided over a meeting of the politburo of the ruling Workers Party, state news agency KCNA said.

Making his first public appearance in 25 days, Kim stressed the need to keep a high alert and intensify the anti-epidemic work, KCNA reported.

The meeting discussed an unspecified “serious crime” committed by party officials at the Pyongyang University of Medicine.

Other officials at the Central Committee and other government agencies “shielded, connived and fostered the crime” by failing to tighten oversight over the university, KCNA said, but did not specify if the crime was related to the coronavirus.