Correction at 10:34 KST, May 18: This article has been amended to correct the date of the Seventh Party Congress and replace a broken hyperlink.

There are growing signs that Pyongyang is moving away from the reformism that characterized much of the 2010s. The state has re-asserted itself in foreign trade, severely restricting private decision-making in one of North Korea’s most important capital-raising spheres. 

But how and where the state injects itself, and to what degree, has been sporadic and inconsistent since the COVID-19 pandemic began. While North Korea seems perfectly comfortable with private market activity