Can an American beer smooth over tense diplomatic relations with the US and North Korea, while ending a nuclear crisis on the Korean Peninsula? Perhaps, since the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il visited a Walmart style supermarket in Pyongyang as his last public appearance and nodded approval of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer placed on the shelves.

According to Fox News, “in his last public appearance, late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il went shopping. He peered at the prices affixed to shelves packed with everything from Pantene shampoos to Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. And he nodded his approval of Pyongyang’s version of Walmart, which was soon open courtesy of China.”

The tour shows a new development in North Korea, which is a new culture of commerce that has sprung up from China. The business-oriented Chinese are introducing the pleasures of the megamart to a small niche of North Koreans, and flooding the nation’s border regions with cheap goods.

As reported by Fox News, “and they are doing it with the full approval of North Korea’s leadership. The new consumerism is part of a campaign launched three years ago to build up the economy and so the image of new leader Kim Jong-un.”

Apparently, there are signs that a new-found consumer culture is becoming more popular both in Pyongyang and in the border towns where Chinese-made goods are bought and sold daily.

To read the entire article from Fox News, link here:

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