> There were a handful of shops that catered for foreigners. All transactions had to be in Euros as possession of local currency by foreigners was forbidden This stood out to me in the article, as most countries incentivize foreign visitors to use local currencies to boost its strength. However, NK seems to have long ago come to terms it's currency will never hold value, so perhaps they instill this rule to boost the…
Or simply they have very little local physical currency and it was printed decades ago and it might pose as an embarrassment, so they don’t want it seen by foreigners.
You used to be able to get a set off eBay for like $25, and sometimes uncut sheets of the older series, but I haven't looked in years.
Fun fact: it's probably easier to collect a reasonable type set of North Korean notes than South Korean. The Southern collection has a lot of hard roadblock notes-- a lot of notes that were replaced by the end of the 1960s and 1970s, so quality examples are expensive and rare, and one famous type from 1962 that circulated for less than a month before being flash withdrawn.