North Korea heads into ‘tense’ winter

North Korea’s self-imposed border lockdown during the pandemic has exacerbated a shortage of food, supplies and cash, hurting the country’s most vulnerable people as they hunker down for the winter ahead.

Winter is typically a volatile time in North Korea, which struggles with chronic food shortages. What makes this year especially concerning, say analysts who follow North Korea, is the country’s closure of its borders since early 2020, even with critical trading partner China.

At the same time, the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, has imposed new measures that have further restricted internal economic activity even as his government has kept up military advancement and test launches of missiles.