North Korea has expanded the state’s role in regulating consumer goods prices since the COVID-19 pandemic as it continues to control economic activity within its borders, according to a Japanese journalist. 

Marketplaces largely set their own prices until around 2020, but are now increasingly influenced by local governments following the pandemic, Jiro Ishimaru, head of the Asia Press’ bureau in Osaka, Japan, said during a seminar in Seoul on Wednesday.

“In other words, the state sets the prices,” Ishimaru said, citing interviews with six sources in the DPRK’s North Hamgyong and Ryanggang provinces from May to mid-June. “One