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Fortress Pyongyang: Kim seeks to push back outside influences
Ten years ago, Swiss-educated basketball fan Kim Jong Un seemed open to foreign ideas, but North Korea has long clamped down on what it calls "ideological and cultural invasion".
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This file picture taken on March 9, 2020 and released from North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on March 10, 2020 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (R) supervising a 'strike drill' together with a high ranking officer at an undisclosed location in North Korea. (AFP/STR/KCNA VIA KNS)
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hen he inherited power in North Korea 10 years ago, Swiss-educated basketball fan Kim Jong Un seemed open to foreign ideas and market reforms, but is increasingly shutting down outside influences as he enters his second decade in office.
North Korea has long been one of the world's most isolated countries, with authorities seeking to maintain tight control over what information gets in or out.
These restrictions appeared to ease under Kim, who allowed the market to play a greater role in North Korea's flagging economy, and invited an entourage of K-pop artists to perform in Pyongyang in 2018.
But the country's situation is deteriorating under a self-imposed coronavirus blockade -- a far more comprehensive measure than any of the international sanctions it is under for its nuclear programme.
Strict rules have snapped back into place as Kim looks to reinforce internal solidarity and his grip on society during times of hardship, analysts say.
"The growing censorship suggests that the regime is less confident," said Troy Stangarone, senior director at the Korea Economic Institute.
Kim -- who spent most of his childhood in Switzerland -- had once appeared more flexible towards outside culture.
