Pyongyang Traffic Girls at the Mall

Pyongyang Traffic Girls are coming to a mall near you ..............

Wow, they have a mall in North Korea?? This must be some sort of traffic police recuitment setup...

I'm still in shock that NK has a mall.

I'll bet anything that it's named Kim Il-Sung Mall, or Glorious Leader Mall or something like that.

If we can get some translation to what is displayed in that atrium, we may find out exactly where this photo was taken......

Mayor_of_Pyongyang wrote:

If we can get some translation to what is displayed in that atrium, we may find out exactly where this photo was taken......

It roughly translates to "30% off on all Jong-Il merchandise"

It looks like they're about to recieve medals or a promotion or some such thing.

....or possibly some form of disciplinary action. They've been reassigned to directing traffic at the mall with an army guard to watch their every move....

I think it is a promotional thing - you know - look at our brave beautiful Traffic Patrolgirls.

I did some investigating and found some info on this mall subject.

While one would think that the North Korean governmemt would give their popular malls grandiose names such as "Glorious Leader Mall", "Mall Of The Peoples Revolution" or the like, what I found was that the stores are actually given extremely drab names like:

Department Store No.1

Pyongyang Department Store No. 2

P'yongyang Children's Department Store

East P'yongyang Department Store

West Pyongyang Department Store

Kwangbok Department Store

Taesong Department Store

etc.


And then I came across this picture, taken obviously in the same mall as was our three traffic Ladies picture.


The picture was taken in 2005, the occasion was the Dear Leader's 64th birthday. (On display are more than 23,000 potted "Kimjongilias", a flower named after Kim Jong-Il. )

Now look at the ceiling. The mall, or store, has a long arching roof.

I searched on Wikimapia for keywords Pyongyang, store and market. The only building that came up that has a roof like the one in the picture is this one:

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=39.0253518&lon=125.6680799&z=18&l=0&m=a&v=2

West Pyongyang Central Market.
So I believe our original post picture was taken at the West Pyongyang Central Market on Sep. 9 2008, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK.

Any idea about what it is that they sell in their malls? Except for maybe one or two kinds of pants, shirts, etc. Even that may be a bit much.

You could probably find a Kimjongilia or two.

Apparently it is described as a "three story supermarket", built when the previous market became too crowded.
"I had found myself in the North Korean version of Macy’s, but here, every day is the Friday after Thanksgiving. There were delicate blouses and dresses for around 15,000 won (roughly $4 at black market exchange rates), all sorts of fruit — thought to be nearly impossible to find in this mountainous hermit kingdom — and enough varieties of mystery meats to make my high school cafeteria green with envy."

How many wheelbarrows does a DPRK citizen need to push in order to bring 15,000 won to the mall???

No wheelbarrow - you could fit three of these Il-Sungs in your billfold!



But 10,000 1 won COINS would be a different story. Probably just 1 wheelbarrow, but a large one.

Thanks for the currency lesson! I'm sure those are cool collector's items.

According to a currency converter, their Won is worth .00701 of a penny.

Pyongyang traffic girls at the mall!!! That's the last thing I'd expect to see! I like this website, lot's to look at.

wowo what a Great picture this Mall is very clean & Good.
why wasn't any of the visiters taken there?
THIS is something to be proud of. something worth showing off.

Raymasaki wrote:

wowo what a Great picture this Mall is very clean & Good.
why wasn't any of the visiters taken there?
THIS is something to be proud of. something worth showing off.

It's a store. Proud?

uh Yeah more proud of a clean big store/Mall better showing this than the
other corny stuff they show. they always want to show something Good Right?
well this is Good. this at least looks modern, most of the store pictures
ive seen look like sad practically out of Business places.
ive seen Better discount food stores in the US.
so Yeah this is worth showing people.

Of course they're proud. They finally have someplace nice for their populace to shop. Now the hard part - getting some products in the stores.

Raymasaki wrote:

uh Yeah more proud of a clean big store/Mall better showing this than the
other corny stuff they show. they always want to show something Good Right?
well this is Good. this at least looks modern, most of the store pictures
ive seen look like sad practically out of Business places.
ive seen Better discount food stores in the US.
so Yeah this is worth showing people.

What I meant was, it's pathetic if the NK government would be overly "proud" of a store - something that is common all over the world.