North Korea shoring up loyalty in face of pandemic: analysts

The impoverished country -- which is under multiple sets of international sanctions over its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes -- has long struggled to feed itself, suffering chronic food shortages.

"Pyongyang had been in dire straits long before the pandemic," said Soo Kim, a former CIA analyst now with the RAND Corporation.All international United Nations staff and foreign aid workers have left in the face of tight restrictions. The World Food Programme, which has by far the largest international aid presence in the country, has warned it could cease operations this year in the absence of food imports.

The allusion was aimed at motivating people to "push through adversities" and work for the "survival of the nation", said Gianluca Spezza, an associate research fellow at the Institute for Security and Development Policy in Stockholm. "Youths lining up to volunteer to work in mines is certainly Pyongyang asserting its identity to the wider world -- even if outsiders view these things as systematic human rights violations," said Michael Madden, a fellow at the Stimson Center.

Pyongyang was looking to indoctrinate the younger generation, who experienced the Arduous March only as children, Madden said.

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