500 Won 41st World Table Tennis Championships

The 41st World Table Tennis Championships were held in Chiba, Japan in 1991 — a politically charged event at which North and South Korea fielded a unified team for the first time, competing together under a single "Korea" banner. The joint women's team defeated China, ending a string of Chinese dominance in the event that had stretched across most of the previous decade.

North Korean commemorative silver issues from this period were produced almost exclusively for hard-currency export, rarely if ever circulating domestically.