"Soju".
We just noticed that at least one brand of North Korean soju, the national alcohol and truly one thing that binds all Koreans together, now comes with a QR code.
If you live in Asia, you will likely have seen and used these codes. A quick scan on your phone and it will take you to a webpage or some other information portal to connect up. (In our experience, western countries are woefully late-adopters on this technology...in fact, QR codes will probably look pretty different by the time "we" get on board.)
Go ahead, try to scan it.
A scan with a Chinese app returned an error message: "The product you're looking for and ought to be here did not arrive". So the QR code led us nowhere, which is too bad, but left us with a mystery.
Does it mean that the soju company, the Pyongyang Alcohol Factory, is considering having it link to a webpage someday? Does it mean that it can connect to a Korean intranet website?
(Our phones don't connect to that network, so we don't know.) Is it merely ornamentation?
Hopefully it will link to a site on the internet soon. Frankly, the drink is of a high quality, and could do well overseas.
One of the participants in dinner commented the next day that he was remarkably hangover free. Having spent several years living in South Korea, he was accustomed to a nearly automatic hangover the next day.
Indeed, it is quite smooth, with a hint of sweetness. It is made of corn and comes in at a fairly dangerous 25%.
Nothing.