About the Author

Chad O'Carroll
Chad O'Carroll has written on North Korea since 2010 and writes between London and Seoul.
Supermarket shelves in Pyongyang are sparse and prices are sharply on the rise, sources told NK News — another sign of North Korea’s struggles as it maintains a strict COVID-19 border lockdown.
Late last year in November, NK News reported that product selection at multiple stores in the North Korean capital was diminishing. Now, in January, sources said that key store items like cooking oil, sugar and toothpaste are almost completely gone, while prices for domestically-sourced fruit and vegetables are rapidly increasing at one of the city’s biggest markets. This suggests that local suppliers are struggling to make up for the dramatic decline in imported food.