1500 Won Eagle Owl

North Korea's wildlife-themed commemorative program expanded significantly in the mid-2000s, largely targeting the Western collector market through intermediary dealers in China and Austria — the DPRK mint having virtually no direct commercial relationship with foreign buyers. These pieces were never intended for domestic circulation and almost certainly never saw Pyongyang at all, moving instead from the Pyongyang Mint through export channels before most examples were even counted.

The Eurasian eagle owl (*Bubo bubo*) breeds across the Korean peninsula, though habitat loss has made it increasingly scarce in the North.