North Korea's main newspaper, the Rodong Sinmun, called on the country's people Saturday to show "absolute obedience" to Pyongyang's stepped-up campaign to prevent the spread of the deadly new coronavirus stemming from the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

The call came as the North has reportedly shut down all air and railway routes across its borders with China and taken other stringent steps to fend off the highly contagious disease that could potentially hamper its efforts to improve people's livelihoods.

"We have to thoroughly protect the lives of the people and the safety of the nation by ramping up disinfection efforts," the paper said in an editorial.

"We have to establish strong rules to ensure their absolute obedience to the national emergency measures," it added.

The newspaper of the ruling Workers' Party has issued a series of articles to stress the need for collective efforts to prevent the outbreak of the novel virus, but it is rare for the paper to deal with a global health emergency in an editorial.

"The work to firmly preserve the lives and safety of the people is the priority of the party and the country," it said.

The paper also stressed that the best way to forestall the spread of the virus is to block all transmission routes into North Korea. (Yonhap)