Agents from the enclosed country were allegedly searching for vaccine info.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in earnest in January of 2020, North Korea almost immediately closed off its borders entirely in an effort to protect itself from the virus’ spread. The leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, has repeatedly asserted that the country has zero COVID-19 cases as a result of this isolation, though world medical experts remain skeptical of this claim. With the latest report of North Korea’s movements, that skepticism has only risen.

According to a report from the National Intelligence Service located in Seoul, South Korea, hackers affiliated with North Korea attempted to hack into the internal systems of pharmaceutical company Pfizer in search of information about the COVID-19 vaccine developed jointly with BioNTech.

“North Korea tried to obtain technology involving the Covid vaccine and treatment by using cyberwarfare to hack into Pfizer,” South Korean Parliament member Ha Tae-keung told reporters.

While information on North Korea is still limited, the fact that its agents are attempting to steal information about the vaccine indicates that it is dealing with at least some cases of COVID-19. Experts believe that a combination of this hypothetical outbreak and existing international sanctions imposed on the country’s weapons development have left its economy in an extremely precarious position, though this is just speculation.

Meanwhile, Pfizer continues to ship out its vaccine doses to every country that placed orders for them, and has announced expectations of at least 2 billion dose deliveries by the end of the year.