100 Won Signing of Hong Kong Lease

Issued by Pyongyang to mark the 1997 handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China, this piece reflects the DPRK's ideological interest in framing the event as the retreat of Western colonialism — a narrative the regime had propagated since its founding. North Korea produced a notable run of foreign-themed commemoratives throughout the 1990s, almost entirely for hard-currency export through numismatic dealers in Europe and Asia, with virtually no domestic circulation intended or possible.

KM#524 is one of several DPRK issues from this period sharing the 7g/.999 silver format, a specification chosen to meet international collector market expectations rather than any domestic monetary need.