March 21, 2023
Border Controls

North Korea hints at more ‘advanced’ COVID policy after years of tight controls

State media says policy to be ‘people-oriented’ and less reliant on regulations, but offers few specifics

Measures to prevent COVID-19 should become more “advanced” and not solely rely on regulations anymore, North Korea’s party-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun stated on Monday, raising the possibility that Pyongyang may reevaluate certain aspects of its two-year-long pandemic restrictions.

The year-end party plenum meeting in December also touched on the country’s anti-COVID directions in the new year, but neither the meeting nor Monday’s newspaper report clarified details about what the future of these policies might be.