North Korean Beer: Locally-Produced and Advertised By Government

by alia_d | July 3, 2009 at 10:41 am

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Instead of launching another missile, North Korea has launched an advertising campaign for locally-produced Taedonggang beer.

The North Korean beer is produced by the Taedonggang Beer Factory, which began producing the beer after it bought a British brewery in 2002 and imported it piece-by-piece to North Korea.

The beer is featured in a two-and-a-half minute TV commercial, which says the beer can help to release stress.

"It represents the new look of Pyongyang," the two-and-a-half minute advert says. "It will be a familiar part of our lives."

The advertisement is a unique commercial move for the North Korean government.

State TV shows almost no adverts — although programming about local factories is common — so the beer advert is a rare step towards commercialism.

Kim Jong-il has taken a special interest in the beer. Maybe it is helping him relieve some of that stress caused by launching 4 short-range missiles this week and threatening the US with merciless thousand-fold military strikes.

"Watching good quality beer coming out in an uninterrupted flow for a long while, he noted with great pleasure that it has now become possible to supply more fresh beer to people in all seasons," North Korea's state news agency, KCNA, said after he visited the brewery in 2002.

Want to try some? Foreigners can buy Taedonggang beer for $1.50 in Pyongyang, the capital. Sometimes the beer is also available in South Korea.

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