A small glimpse of the diversity of products domestically produced in the DPRK.
In addition to simple food stuffs, I was able to purchase goods such as make up and other beauty products, candies, herbal products, agricultural products, pencils, pens, and other small daily goods.
A few glimpses into the lackings of North Korean light industry can also be discerned from these scans.
No product has a printed production code, even though plenty of product packaging includes spaces for production dates. In fact, production dates were commonly written on with a marker or pen, or left out altogether.
On several product labels, there was also no glue applied at all, instead being held to the bottle or design by a single strip of carefully placed cellophane tape. It seems that many simple industrial machines that Western firms take very much for granted are lacking in the DPRK.
Interestingly, although almost all the products I encountered in the DPRK had barcode scanners, none of the stores or shops I visited had a barcode scanner. I wonder if they are valid barcodes, or just another way to show off their modernity.
