This overview has been updated up to the events of May 18, 2022 to incorporate a range of new developments since the date of first publication on March 26, 2020.

North Korea is currently experiencing its first reported COVID-19 outbreak since the pandemic began in early 2020. 

North Korea’s battle against COVID-19 – first to keep it out and now to keep it contained – has come with various costs on both local and foreign residents in the country, as well as in the country’s politics, economics and society.

The country does not likely have the testing capacity