North Korea

This page exists for completeness and to give a direct answer. There is no accessible retail trading market in North Korea, and no legitimate broker offers services there.

The position

North Korea is subject to comprehensive international sanctions under United Nations Security Council resolutions and national measures. It is excluded from international banking networks, and financial institutions worldwide are required to block transactions involving it. Internet access for the general population is essentially nonexistent, with a domestic intranet in its place.

Sanctions obligations follow persons as well as places. Anyone subject to US, EU, UK or UN-implementing jurisdiction faces restrictions on dealings connected to North Korea wherever they live, and every regulated broker screens for this.

The 2009 revaluation

One episode from the country's monetary history is worth recording, because it demonstrates something that is otherwise discussed only in theory.

In 2009 the authorities redenominated the won, removing two zeros — and strictly limited the amount of old currency each household could exchange. Savings above the cap were simply void. The measure was reportedly aimed at the informal markets that had grown up outside state distribution, and at the traders who had accumulated cash in them.

The result was the confiscation of household savings by administrative act, followed by disruption to the markets people had come to depend on for food. Reports indicate the authorities subsequently retreated from parts of the policy.

Why it belongs here

Because it is the limiting case of a principle that applies to every currency. Money holds value by the continued permission and credibility of the institution that issues it, and that permission is revocable. Lebanon's depositors, Zimbabwe's savers and North Korea's traders learned the same thing at different intensities.

It is also why the practical advice on every page of this site — verify the entity, diversify the corridor, do not store capital where you cannot retrieve it — is not pedantry.