The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) called for more strict and thorough countermeasures to ensure the safety of its citizens from the fast-spreading coronavirus pandemic at a political bureau meeting of the ruling party's central committee, which was presided over by its leader Kim Jong Un, state media reported on Sunday.

The Korean Central News Agency said the widespread virus has created obstacles to the country's effort in its economic construction, though the country "has been maintaining (a) very stable anti-epidemic situation" thanks to its "strict top-class emergency anti-epidemic measures ... consistency and compulsoriness in the nationwide protective measures."

In a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea on Saturday, a joint resolution was adopted to take "more thorough state measures for protecting life and safety of (its) people from the great worldwide epidemic disease."

It also included goals of "continuously intensifying the nationwide emergency anti-epidemic services and pushing ahead with the economic construction, increasing national defence capability and stabilizing the people's livelihood this year," KCNA said.

The report also said Kim Yo Jong, Kim Jong Un's sister and senior government official, was elected as an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the ruling party.

The politburo meeting suggests that a key session of the country's legislature Supreme People's Assembly (SPA), which was supposed to take place on Friday, has been postponed for unclear reasons because a politburo meeting usually takes place on the eve of an SPA session.

It is unclear whether leader Kim would attend the SPA meeting. Last April, he joined a SPA session to deliver a policy speech for the first time since taking office in late 2011.

The DPRK is among just a few countries in the world that claim to have no coronavirus infections.

Photos released by state media showed around 30 politburo members and alternate members took part in the meeting, relatively smaller than previous gatherings apparently in consideration of the coronavirus fears, Yonhap reported.

Meanwhile, state media also reported that Kim has inspected a "pursuit assault plane group" in the western area.

"He expressed great satisfaction to the pursuit assault plane group which is reliably defending the territorial sky of the western area of the country," KCNA said. "He raised important tasks for further enhancing the combat efficiency of the group after praising their efforts."

The inspection came days after Kim supervised a mortar firing drill on Thursday.

(With input from Reuters)