1 Won Soldier of Korean War

Issued in 2001, this commemorative falls within a period when North Korea was producing hard-currency collector pieces primarily for export sale through foreign dealers — a revenue stream the regime leaned on heavily under severe economic sanctions and the ongoing famine recovery of the late 1990s. Domestic circulation was never the intent.

The Korean War armistice of 1953 has never been converted to a formal peace treaty, a legal fact Pyongyang has periodically leveraged in diplomatic negotiations right up to the present day.