This undated photo shows shops with electric signs lined up on a street in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. (PHOTO / CHOSON EXCHANGE / THE KOREA HERALD)

SEOUL -  The Democratic People's Republic of Korea said on Friday it had confirmed that cases of unknown fever reported were patients with the flu, state media reported.

On Thursday the country said that it had locked down the area and mobilized medical teams after four fever cases were reported from Ryanggang province, but that it was not COVID-19, over which the country declared victory this month. 

It was revealed that all of the fever patients in the Ryanggang province were patients with the flu.

 KCNA news agency

ALSO READ: DPRK criticizes ROK president after aid offer

"It was revealed that all of the fever patients in the Ryanggang province were patients with the flu," KCNA news agency reported on Friday, saying experts conducted clinical symptoms observation, epidemiological relationship investigation and nucleic acid tests.

The DPRK has never confirmed how many people caught COVID-19. Instead, it reported daily numbers of patients with fever, which totalled some 4.77 million, and said there have not been any new such cases since July 29.

In a separate dispatch, KCNA carried a Russian state media interview with Moscow's ambassador to the DPRK, Alexandr Matsegora, detailing the COVID-19 situation in the country.

Matsegora said he had raised the possibility that the virus had come from China, rather than through anti-North leaflets flown from Republic of Korea as Pyongyang argued.

But the North dismissed that view, presenting him data that showed the northern regions bordering China were much less affected by the outbreak than the southern areas, he said.