The Kwangbok Supermarket is one of North Korea’s premier shopping facilities, and is a frequent stop on many foreign tourist, journalist, and trade delegation itineraries, being one of the DPRK’s major supermarkets.

Although it is a visibly different kind of North Korean retail experience, state retail policy that emerged around the time it was opened points to a potentially highly ambitious (perhaps infeasible) long-term strategy for state entities to gradually take back control from private market traders.

NK Pro analysis indicates the following: