Last week, North Korea held a large-scale party meeting that reportedly focused in large part on economic and epidemic policies, pointing to the leadership’s overall priorities for the rest of the year.

These priorities in some ways reflect long-run objectives. But they are also the result of more immediate concerns: the direct effects of the spread of COVID-19 within the country, the second-order effects of the outbreak on the internal market and economic activity, consequences of the prolonged trade shutdown with China and the reportedly severe drought that is hitting the agricultural sector. 

NK