1 Chon Capitalist Visitor

North Korea maintained separate currency streams for foreign visitors throughout the post-reform decades, with denominations color-coded by visitor type. This note — part of the series designated for capitalist-country tourists and businesspeople — was deliberately distinguished from the parallel series issued to socialist-bloc visitors, who received different colors of the same denominations. The two could not be used interchangeably, and locals were prohibited from holding either.

The Foreign Trade Bank series was introduced as a hard-currency management tool following the collapse of the won's external credibility. Whether these notes saw any meaningful circulation or functioned primarily as a bureaucratic formality for the trickle of Western visitors permitted entry is, practically speaking, an open question.