20 Won Pallas's Sandgrouse

North Korea's foreign-currency commemorative program, active from the 1980s onward, was designed almost entirely for export — these coins were never intended to circulate domestically and were sold abroad through state trading companies to generate hard currency for the regime. The Pallas's Sandgrouse (*Syrrhaptes paradoxus*) is a genuine resident of the Central Asian steppe that undertakes irregular irruptive migrations westward, occasionally reaching the Korean peninsula.