The Western news outlets do tend towards being biased against North Korea and exaggerate stories to sensationalize the nation. This Does, however seem pretty serious and unexaggerated as it was announced by the DPRK government themselves and the news is just repeating what the North Korean Health authorities have said.

There is a tenuous lines of communication open to North Korea via China. North Koreans work in China or Russia, people also escape to China and may defect to South Korea. Some keep in touch with family back home and send money back. It's all very tenuous because North Korean government knows all about this and only tolerate it due to the money they bring in to the country. It can ends very suddenly if they feel like making an example out of few people. Story from defectors are also limited in their usefulness because they can be greatly exaggerated, or limited to their home town. The dark humor I've gotten from South Korean researchers on North Korea is that the only corroborating evidence they can collect on North Korean food situation is the number of bodies that float down the Imjin river.

It's a wonderful land built from candy where all of your wildest dreams come true!

These days there are a lot of tourist videos, and you can find some North Korean films or cartoons if you look hard enough (letterboxd + YouTube help for films). You can visit if you have a passport, but some passports are barred like those from the US.

But official communications are limited and journalism around North Korea by outside journalists is usually time-lagged and hearsay. As a rule, outside news about North Korea is easy to exaggerate, but Covid-19 is a deadly pandemic and is still an active threat.

I don’t know but they have been around for a long time. Lots of people alive today there.