20 Won Year of the Rabbit

North Korea has issued commemorative coinage in small numbers for the international collector market since the 1970s, largely as a hard currency earning exercise. The Year of the Rabbit issues fall within a broader zodiac series produced during the Kim Jong-il period, when Pyongyang's foreign trade operations — including the Korea Kumsong Trading Corporation — handled distribution to overseas dealers, primarily through intermediaries in China and Germany. Domestic circulation was never the intent; ordinary North Koreans had no access to convertible currency pieces of this type.