North Korea gains taste for Coke, imitations

Despite sanctions, soft drink can be found in capital.

Coca-Cola is possibly the world’s most recognizable brand, an almost inescapable symbol of the global appeal of American-style consumer culture. There are only two countries in the world where Coke doesn’t officially operate, and one of them is North Korea.

But even the North is developing quite a taste for cola — though the iconic redand-white labeled bottles the cola comes in likely are not exactly the Real Thing and their twist tops need a bit more than the usual caution. They have a tendency to leak or refuse to come off at all.

North Korea and Cuba are the only countries where Coca-Cola Co. has no operations, said communications director Ann Moore. Coke doesn’t do business with either because of sanctions.

That doesn’t stop Coke making its way over the North Korean border, however.

Coke bottled in China and bearing Chinese labels isn’t hard to find in North Korea’s relatively affluent capital, Pyongyang. It is sold in upscale grocery stores that cater to the capital’s elite and a growing number of middle class residents, who are increasingly earning enough hard cash through entrepreneurial side businesses to purchase more than bare necessities.

Coke from China can also be quaffed in international hotels frequented by both locals who can afford their high prices and foreign tourists and business people, most of them from China as well. Pepsi sightings are rarer. The cola served at restaurants and lining the shelves in stores where more typical North Koreans shop are likely to be local imitations, though one of the more popular ones could, from a distance, easily pass as a Coke.