Atsuhito Isozaki

Associate Professor, Keio University

Mr. ISOZAKI Atsuhito is an associate professor at Keio University, Yokohama, Japan. His research focuses on contemporary North Korean politics and Japan-North Korea relations. Previously, he served as a special analyst on North Korean politics in the Intelligence and Analysis Service of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was a senior researcher on North Korean politics at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing. In addition to this, he was selected as a Japan Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center and held several teaching positions including a part-time lecturer at the University of Tokyo and Japan’s National Police Academy. He received his M.A. in Law from Keio University and studied abroad at the Seoul National University. His major publications include Tourism in North Korea (2019), New Introduction to North Korean Studies (2017) and North Korea and Human Security (2009).

Commuters wearing face masks ride a tramcar in Pyongyang on February 26, 2020. (Kim Won-Jin/AFP)

North Korea demonstrating superiority of regime through epidemic control

Lockdown state, zero Chinese tourists, zero infected case... Keio University’s Atsuhito Isozaki notes that for health and political reasons, North Korea is treating the possible outbreak of Covid-19 as a matter of “national survival”. In the immediate, however, rising prices brought on by disruptions in supply are a key threat.