The isolation may have delayed the impact of covid, but they were hit hard with it when it did get in. They cut off food imports as part of this effort and people were starving. Kim turned down vaccine offers on a couple of occasions, though they may have gotten the Russian vaccine.
I used to play Lord of the Rings Online every year in December because they have some neat events. Haven’t done it for a while (lost my install with a hard drive and never reinstalled).