10 Won Kim Jong Il and Putin

Issued to commemorate Vladimir Putin's July 2000 state visit to Pyongyang — the first by a Russian head of state since the Soviet era — this piece was produced in the immediate aftermath of the inter-Korean summit and amid North Korea's intensive diplomatic rehabilitation campaign following the Arduous March famine years. Putin's visit resulted in a joint declaration explicitly opposing U.S. missile defense systems, a political alignment the DPRK had every reason to memorialize in silver.

Mintage figures were never officially published, as is standard for DPRK commemorative issues, but these pieces circulated almost exclusively through Western numismatic channels via intermediaries in China and Germany.