500 Won Hockey

Issued to mark the 1988 Seoul Olympics — hosted by South Korea, the DPRK's ideological adversary — North Korea produced this coin despite boycotting the Games entirely. Pyongyang had lobbied aggressively to co-host the event, and when those negotiations collapsed in 1987, the DPRK withdrew and persuaded Cuba, Ethiopia, and a handful of allied states to follow. Minting Olympic-themed silver for hard currency export while refusing to send athletes is precisely the kind of contradiction that defines DPRK numismatic output from this period.