The North Korean government and private merchants are competing for market share in North Korea’s emerging financial services sector, in what appears to be a high stakes scramble for a depleting pool of foreign currency. 

Concerned about diminished revenue from abroad, North Korea’s banks have turned to the domestic population as a source of funds, offering a line of modern consumer financial products like debit cards, high yield trust funds, and electronic payments systems to lure users and hopefully attract deposits.

At the same time, private sector financiers have developed a suite of