Shopping in Pyongyang means state department stores, a few joint-venture supermarkets, and artisan workshops pricing in won you change at an in-store desk. Expect escorted visits, no cameras inside markets, and souvenirs printed nowhere else on earth.
The capital's largest sanctioned market: a barrel-roofed hall on Tongil Street with roughly 800 stalls of kimchi crocks, Chinese textiles, dried pollack, ginseng and hand-sewn slippers. Cameras and phones stay on the bus; vendors quote won at market rate.
Three-floor joint-venture supermarket opened 2012 on Kwangbok Street, where Pyongyang residents push trolleys past tourists. Groceries and a hot-food counter downstairs, clothing on two, electronics and Samjiyon tablets on three.
The 4,000-artist state studio in Pyongchon District keeps a sales hall of hand-painted Chosonhwa ink scrolls, embroidered folding screens, woodblock prints and signed propaganda posters. Painters often work in the adjoining rooms while you browse.
Silk workshop where artisans stitch double-sided tiger, crane and magnolia panels, some taking six months per piece. The ground-floor sales room carries framed miniatures, pojagi wrapping cloths and thread sets sold by weight.
Six floors on Sungri Street stocking domestic brands only: Pyongyang-label shoes, Mokran televisions, Unhasu ceramics and Sonhung tinned goods. Locals pay by Narae debit card at wooden counters where staff still write receipts by hand.
Renovated riverside store known for being among the first to post prices at the market exchange rate rather than the official one. Strongest section is cosmetics: Ryugyong and Unhasu ginseng creams, packaged in heavy glass.
Ground-floor shops beneath the 2017 high-rise strip built for Kim Il-sung University staff: tailoring salons, an Arirang handset counter, a bakery and a furniture showroom. The city's newest and glossiest retail frontage.
Nine-storey 2013 leisure block housing a basement supermarket, an import shop of Chinese and Singaporean goods, and a tailoring salon that cuts a made-to-measure suit in about 48 hours from local fabric.
State philatelic shop beside the Koryo Hotel selling first-day covers, leader commemoratives, sports issues and the notorious anti-US sheetlets. Also albums, tongs and complete uncirculated won banknote sets in presentation folders.
Two cramped rooms of English, Russian, Spanish and Arabic editions of the leaders' collected works, Korean phrasebooks, hand-drawn children's comics and rolled propaganda posters printed on coarse pulp paper.
Hard-currency store in Potonggang District over four floors: imported electronics, watches, Japanese cosmetics and a liquor hall stacked with ginseng spirit, snake wine and Pyongyang soju in ceramic bottles.
Basement strip on the Taedong island hotel: souvenir counter, bookshop, stamp desk, barber and a small tailor, plus a late-opening bar. The one arcade where foreign visitors can browse without an escort at their shoulder.