Report: U.S. offered COVID-19 help to North Korea

March 12 (UPI) -- A U.S. State Department official says the United States has reached out to North Korea to offer assistance over the global coronavirus outbreak.

Voice of America's Korean service reported Robert Destro, assistant secretary of democracy, human rights and labor, confirmed the offer on Wednesday, during the State Department's release of its annual 2019 country reports of human rights practices.

The U.S. offer to North Korea may have also been made to Iran and China. The Trump administration is ready to help with and make efforts in the area of disease prevention and control, Destro said, according to VOA.

Destro reportedly declined to comment on the situation in North Korea regarding COVID-19. Pyongyang has claimed the country has "zero" cases of the disease, but it has also placed around 10,000 people under quarantine since the outbreak, according to North Korean state media.

The U.S. government has previously expressed concerns about North Korean vulnerability to the coronavirus.

The annual 2019 country reports on human rights practices include a report on North Korea human rights.

The report, made available to the public on Wednesday, states the Kim Jong Un regime has taken "no credible steps" to prosecute human rights abusers.

"As of year's end, the government still had not accounted for the circumstances that led to the death of Otto Warmbier, who had been held in unjust and unwarranted detention by the authorities and who died soon after his release in 2017," the report says.

Atrocities continue to prevail in North Korea, including unlawful or arbitrary killings, torture by authorities, and harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, according to the State Department report.