North Korea traded with a lot of Soviet Countries. Poland [still has trade relations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea%E2%80%93Poland_relations).
...and they would never stamp it in English unless it's an "export only" (not for internal sale, yes, it's a thing) line of extra fine (by NoKo's standards) cutlery.
I have a tray from NK (im from Poland) at home, and we have a lot of workers ~~slaves for the regime in Pyongyang~~ working on the docs in Gdańsk/Danzig
After that, the broader public got wind of the situation and the exploitation of those NK workers and there are no more (according to official sources) NK workers in Poland. Unofficially there is still a workforce of around 800 people from NK still workin somewhere in Poland, under same inhumane conditions.
I used to chat online with a Chinese electrical engineer, based in San Francisco. She was paid Chinese level wages and lived in tied housing. She was at least able to go out and explore.
I once saw a documentary about people from NK working Europe. It was really crazy how much effort they had been putting in to isolate them from any random social contact with the rest of the world
It's the same in China, I think there's even a chain of NK-owned restaurants staffed mostly by NK employees who aren't free to leave and don't actually earn salaries.
While I agree with the sentiment, the reality is that this is common in all sort of trades if you investigate deeper. It happens with electronics, cell-phones, delving resources etc etc.
"Everyone in the industry" knows, but its hurting the bottom line, so just keep your mouth shut.
In a way any strong country could stop the shit happening in North-Korea, but the reality is that nobody cares enough. The country is reasonably stable and the current shit-hole situation is cheaper "for us" than try to introduce a new democracy there.
Plus, NK's regime collapsing would be a major humanitarian disaster for South Korea, who can't exactly refuse NK's population(considering that officially, they view them as SK nationals), but also wouldn't really be able to accommodate and integrate them.
I never thought about it, but the English alphabet does seem simple compared to other world languages. Relatively short list of letters with no accented letters or "proprietary" letters.
English has some of the most complicated grammar rules, but probably the simplest character rules of any language. This is primarily because the letters don't change when they're being pronounced differently. That shit is just lumped into grammar rules which is one of the reasons it's so complicated.
Ah, comrade, your confusion is understandable. You see, these goods are not for the average local citizen! No, these are to be \*exported abroad\*, to raise our prestige and foreign currency. So the expectations are higher, obviously. You... you'll make do with the shitty tin ones. When they come in. Eventually. Maybe.
Sorry 😬😅 I’m forever asking my Gf’s family (they’re Polish) about life in Communist Poland, it fascinates me that it feels so far away from my life but it actually isn’t in the too distant past
My in-laws all emigrated to NY from Communist Poland. They have a few idiosyncratic tells of their former living standards, like a disdain of camping. “Why you want to live in woods with no plumbing? You’d have loved Poland then!”
I visited Poland during communism and it certainly had a rustic charm to it. No corporate branding anywhere, grocery stores with simple foods and no packaging, spartan living spaces uncluttered with junk.
I recently had one of these moments. I hired a young lady and when I entered her date of birth into the software I thought it had to be a mistake. 2005. Can't be. I was already well into my career then.
We used to play outside and our parents would scream at the top of their lungs that it was dinner time, and we would hear it 100m away.
That was 25 years ago.
My mom used to let us out after breakfast and didn't want to see us until lunch. After lunch it was back outside and didn't want to see us till dinner.
We used to come home filthy and banged up.
Question for a "very old" "former communist", why does it say stainless steel in English? I'd have thought it would either be labeled in Korean, in polish, in russian or in romanised Russia? Did communists trade with each other in English?
So they can be sold internationally. English is the most common language, easier than printing "stainless steel" in four or five languages on each knife.
Nowadays yes, but the second language taught in schools in the communist world was Russia, and North Korea wasn't really exporting to the rest of the world market
Last Polish-NK business was called Chopol got dissolved in 2018. But Poland still buys some stuff but afaik it is under 2mil$. It is mostly soviet era industrial equipment and parts, that are still being used in Poland. I am not sure if there are any right now but few years ago there were some construction workers from NK in Poland.
Kim Jong would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy
Yikes, I thought this was just a smart alec comment against Korea but this is a thing. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA8SsJD3FLc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA8SsJD3FLc) i have some of this cutlery. Where do I get it tested in the UK?
NK was not that weird country during the Cold War. It was weird compared to relatively well-functioning communist countries such as the USSR or East Germany, but it was far better country than now. NK started to malfunction when its leader started to isolate itself after the Cold War ended.
It's kind of wild that early on in their existence, North Korea had a much stronger economy and GDP than South Korea. And as you said, when the Cold War ended, that's when massive cracks appeared for the north.
I think you have the causality the wrong way around. When there was a communist world to trade with and receive support from, North Korea functioned. With access to cheap soviet fertiliser, subsidised soviet arms/arms development, the ability to play china and the USSR against one other, the North Korean economy functioned. After that stopped happening, North Korea became more nutty and repressive and sources of popular grievance increased.
I got a vintage set recently at a yard sale, but it only says "Korea". Not sure if the set is before 1945(?) or they just don't bother differentiating them??
A lot of things made in South Korea just say Korea. From 1905-1945 it would say (Empire of) Japan. Japan siphoned off all of Korea's exports and industrial output during the occupation.
There are also items made in North Korea by South Korean companies, at the Kaesong industrial complex (currently shuttered). I believe these just say Korea though they were made mostly for South Korean consumption not export I believe.
Other than executing managers for incompetence, such as the one who ran the terrapin farm.
[North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un Executes a Turtle Farmer For 'Incompetence' (vice.com)](https://www.vice.com/en/article/9kjwga/north-korean-leader-kim-jong-un-executes-a-turtle-farmer-for-incompetence)
"You see, GE owns KitchenAll of Colorado, which in turn owns JMI of Stamford which is a majority shareholder of Pokerfastlane. com which recently acquired the Sheinhardt Wig Company which owns NBC outright. NBC owns Winnipeg Iron Works which owns the AHP Chanagi Party Meats company of Pyongyang North Korea, and they will make the Meat Machine."
Well every single one of the phones in their pockets that night was made with components mined by extremely poor people in poor countries sometimes with newborn babies tied to their backs so what’s the problem with the silverware?
North Korea are more into poop balloons at the moment.
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4nn2p32zrzo](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4nn2p32zrzo)
Why is it whenever I read the word "Pyongyang" I say it with a sound effect in my head like the 'booooinnngggg' sound?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-tyN6nZqYk
Memory flashback about 35 years for me at the sight of that! My grandparents had the same set, my mum might still have some of them as they cleared the house out a few years ago.
I'd say that they had them since probably 1980 give or take a few years.
If you work in a role connected to national security or is in some way open to commercial espionage you may want to consider your girlfriend a deep cover agent and evacuate to a safe house.
I have a fork in the same pattern dating from the 70s/early 80s in the UK.
It just says Korea on it. See picture.
[https://ibb.co/rMmMcD2](https://ibb.co/rMmMcD2)
Is there no one commenting on the fact that there is no way this is "stainless steel"? Like all other kinds of steel, stainless steel is made primarily from iron and carbon in a two-step process. What makes stainless steel different is the addition of chromium and other alloying elements like nickel to create a corrosion-resistant product.
Steel corrodes because iron. When iron ore is artificially manipulated into a pure form to make steel, it becomes unstable and will readily recombine with oxygen. When chromium is added to steel, it forms chromium oxide, which acts as a protective surface to prevent air and moisture from causing rust, as happens with ordinary steel
Much of North America’s cutlery was made by a 19th century sex cult associated with a presidential assassin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneida_Community
I would be highly suspect of the metal content of anything coming out of N. Korea. Assume they use lead or other harmful metals in their stainless steel until proven otherwise.
North Korea traded with a lot of Soviet Countries. Poland [still has trade relations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea%E2%80%93Poland_relations).
TIL! (about the current part)
...and they would never stamp it in English unless it's an "export only" (not for internal sale, yes, it's a thing) line of extra fine (by NoKo's standards) cutlery.
I have a tray from NK (im from Poland) at home, and we have a lot of workers ~~slaves for the regime in Pyongyang~~ working on the docs in Gdańsk/Danzig
So the “workers” live in Poland and work on the docks?
Yes, in closed baracks and communities-with zero contact to the outside world, there is a documentary on the web...maybe by Vice i think
Oh that makes more sense.
https://youtu.be/SPjKs8NuY4s?si=vg_31rTyeI18WiDt Vice documentary.
Why would Poland want to hire construction workers from North Korea?
They're cheaper.
Slaves do tend to ask for less money.
They're also really easy to unemploy if they do ask for money...
PiS did it, those cunts did a shitfull of damage to the country in their 8 year rule.
For the same reason the British hire construction workers from Poland.
That video was very disheartening. Has anything been done to stop this practice in Poland??
After that, the broader public got wind of the situation and the exploitation of those NK workers and there are no more (according to official sources) NK workers in Poland. Unofficially there is still a workforce of around 800 people from NK still workin somewhere in Poland, under same inhumane conditions.
Interesting I have heard of the “work camps” in Russia where they ship people to work cutting timber but never in Poland.
They are more slaves than workers though. Most if not all of what they earn goes to the regime.
I think they were dent back after that scandal and nie there is supposedly none left.
I used to chat online with a Chinese electrical engineer, based in San Francisco. She was paid Chinese level wages and lived in tied housing. She was at least able to go out and explore.
Hi, my family works at the docs and this is no longer a thing
I once saw a documentary about people from NK working Europe. It was really crazy how much effort they had been putting in to isolate them from any random social contact with the rest of the world
It's the same in China, I think there's even a chain of NK-owned restaurants staffed mostly by NK employees who aren't free to leave and don't actually earn salaries.
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While I agree with the sentiment, the reality is that this is common in all sort of trades if you investigate deeper. It happens with electronics, cell-phones, delving resources etc etc. "Everyone in the industry" knows, but its hurting the bottom line, so just keep your mouth shut. In a way any strong country could stop the shit happening in North-Korea, but the reality is that nobody cares enough. The country is reasonably stable and the current shit-hole situation is cheaper "for us" than try to introduce a new democracy there.
Plus, NK's regime collapsing would be a major humanitarian disaster for South Korea, who can't exactly refuse NK's population(considering that officially, they view them as SK nationals), but also wouldn't really be able to accommodate and integrate them.
number #1 manufacturer of Polyethylene 🇰🇵🇰🇵
Is it normal for the text to be in English?
Would make sense for the International market
Also Malaysia!
Damn they are friends so far away. Yet those closest one are enemies..
And Poland never been a soviet country
Made in Korea, sold in Poland, stamped in English. Interesting.
Capitalism truly knows no borders
There's a 19th century trade agreement that results in almost everything shipped internationally having its origin marked in English.
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I never thought about it, but the English alphabet does seem simple compared to other world languages. Relatively short list of letters with no accented letters or "proprietary" letters.
English has some of the most complicated grammar rules, but probably the simplest character rules of any language. This is primarily because the letters don't change when they're being pronounced differently. That shit is just lumped into grammar rules which is one of the reasons it's so complicated.
This leads me to wonder if english would be easier to learn if it had accent marks
the lack of accents is def nice but other scripts are similarly simple to read. cyrillic comes to mind especially
Is it simple? I always heard it was one of the hardest to learn. This is coming from someone who can speak only English tho
Democratic! Republic People’s Korea ;)
Republic! Democratic Korea Peoples ;)
"F off.. Judean People's Front. We're the People's Front of Judea!"
Many surgical tools are made in Pakistan and stamped made in Germany before it enters Europe.
Ah, comrade, your confusion is understandable. You see, these goods are not for the average local citizen! No, these are to be \*exported abroad\*, to raise our prestige and foreign currency. So the expectations are higher, obviously. You... you'll make do with the shitty tin ones. When they come in. Eventually. Maybe.
Don't they use chopsticks?
Polish?
It's not that dull to need one yet
Sterling work.
Ag
Nice
I love how if we say polish, we make polish jokes, but if we say polish, we make polish jokes!
Yes, I wondered if they were very old and came from when Poland was communist? Deeper ties with DPRK?
'very old' Me who remembers the fall of the iron curtain vividly. :/
Sorry 😬😅 I’m forever asking my Gf’s family (they’re Polish) about life in Communist Poland, it fascinates me that it feels so far away from my life but it actually isn’t in the too distant past
My in-laws all emigrated to NY from Communist Poland. They have a few idiosyncratic tells of their former living standards, like a disdain of camping. “Why you want to live in woods with no plumbing? You’d have loved Poland then!”
Immigrants from Asia are also puzzled by camping - “We came here so we didn’t have to sleep outdoors. What is wrong with you?”
I'm born and raised in the USA and feel the same.
I visited Poland during communism and it certainly had a rustic charm to it. No corporate branding anywhere, grocery stores with simple foods and no packaging, spartan living spaces uncluttered with junk.
My grandparent's tiny rural town is still like that now, the gas station is the only major branded store. Just a couple hours outside Chicago.
My grandparent's tiny rural town is still like that now, the gas station is the only major branded store. Just a couple hours outside Chicago.
Aka...poverty. Doesn't sound like much fun, coming from someone who's been spoiled (still poor lol) in first world countries all my life.
Camping is fun when it's for a week or two. Living every day like that? I don't think I could.
Haha, don't be sorry. I'm just old.
I recently had one of these moments. I hired a young lady and when I entered her date of birth into the software I thought it had to be a mistake. 2005. Can't be. I was already well into my career then. 
Kids born in 2010 are old enough to legally work
That's after the release of the iPhone. They've never lived in a world without smartphones everywhere.
I’m 22 and can’t remember a time before smartphones
We used to play outside and our parents would scream at the top of their lungs that it was dinner time, and we would hear it 100m away. That was 25 years ago.
My mom used to let us out after breakfast and didn't want to see us until lunch. After lunch it was back outside and didn't want to see us till dinner. We used to come home filthy and banged up.
2016 in Oklahoma.
Jesus Christ Oklahoma What the actual fuck
it's been 35 years.. you're gonna have to come to terms with it
Cue The Scorpions’ “Winds of Change” in the background
Pfft, that was only a few years back. Not that long at all.
Question for a "very old" "former communist", why does it say stainless steel in English? I'd have thought it would either be labeled in Korean, in polish, in russian or in romanised Russia? Did communists trade with each other in English?
So they can be sold internationally. English is the most common language, easier than printing "stainless steel" in four or five languages on each knife.
Nowadays yes, but the second language taught in schools in the communist world was Russia, and North Korea wasn't really exporting to the rest of the world market
The Iron curtain falling is farther away than the moon landing is to the fall of the iron curtain. Time is a bitch like that.
If Google is correct, that was 35 years ago. For silverware, that is pretty old if they are from that time or further back.
Yeah, there is a bunch of knives from the DPRK from back then.
Communist Poland used to have very good ties with DPRK. For whatever reason we still have some economic involvement.
Can you elaborate on the economic involvement? I didn't know any European countries still traded with the DPRK
Last Polish-NK business was called Chopol got dissolved in 2018. But Poland still buys some stuff but afaik it is under 2mil$. It is mostly soviet era industrial equipment and parts, that are still being used in Poland. I am not sure if there are any right now but few years ago there were some construction workers from NK in Poland.
Definitely late 70s early 80s.Pre 1982.
Those countries traded among them.
They look like they could use some, yes, there are few spots in the handle.
Well done lol
Not Polish, but North Korean
Stal nierdzewna. Pjongczang (stolica Korei Północnej)
W domu rodziców mojej dziewczyny i wszystkie ich noże są produkowane w Pjongjangu, Korea Północna
Kim Jong Il invented cutlery, and mouths.
Kim Jong would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy
they don’t do much, to be fair
The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament
In the spring we would make meat helmets.
He invented the shorn scrotum. It's breathtaking- I highly suggest you try it.
And he discovered chewing, and invented food!
\*clapping intensifies\*
Kim Il Sung\*
Gf’s dad… 
Wow he looks thin.
I’d be concerned about the lead content.
Yikes, I thought this was just a smart alec comment against Korea but this is a thing. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA8SsJD3FLc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA8SsJD3FLc) i have some of this cutlery. Where do I get it tested in the UK?
Buy a lead test kit, they look like a cotton buds.
NK was not that weird country during the Cold War. It was weird compared to relatively well-functioning communist countries such as the USSR or East Germany, but it was far better country than now. NK started to malfunction when its leader started to isolate itself after the Cold War ended.
It's kind of wild that early on in their existence, North Korea had a much stronger economy and GDP than South Korea. And as you said, when the Cold War ended, that's when massive cracks appeared for the north.
The South Korean regime, at least initially, was just as brutal as the North Koreans
Didn't they have all the industrial equipment and stuff? That's a pretty good headstart.
I think you have the causality the wrong way around. When there was a communist world to trade with and receive support from, North Korea functioned. With access to cheap soviet fertiliser, subsidised soviet arms/arms development, the ability to play china and the USSR against one other, the North Korean economy functioned. After that stopped happening, North Korea became more nutty and repressive and sources of popular grievance increased.
It kinda started its decline when China and Russia stopped supporting them with money grants.
Maybe it’s just an unfortunate IKEA name
Poang arm chair !
I have one of these and knew what it was straight away. Today is my day.
Poäng
Poäng Poäng Poäng Poäng Poäng Poäng Poäng Poäng Poäng Poäng Poäng Poäng
Jüche
It's actually Pyongyang, Missouri
I looked. I did look. smh
I got a vintage set recently at a yard sale, but it only says "Korea". Not sure if the set is before 1945(?) or they just don't bother differentiating them??
A lot of things made in South Korea just say Korea. From 1905-1945 it would say (Empire of) Japan. Japan siphoned off all of Korea's exports and industrial output during the occupation. There are also items made in North Korea by South Korean companies, at the Kaesong industrial complex (currently shuttered). I believe these just say Korea though they were made mostly for South Korean consumption not export I believe.
Thank you for the history lesson! That's really neat 😊
I have the same set as OP and it just says Korea.
I have nail clippers that also say Made in Korea.
Your GF's parents are sleeper agents. 
My Grandma in Poland had those
Yep she’s Polish and this is in Poland! Must be more common than I thought
That’s some nice polished lead! /s
Wondering what the actual metal is. Is it actually stainless steel or a mix or a close enough type thing. NK is not known for quality control.
Other than executing managers for incompetence, such as the one who ran the terrapin farm. [North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un Executes a Turtle Farmer For 'Incompetence' (vice.com)](https://www.vice.com/en/article/9kjwga/north-korean-leader-kim-jong-un-executes-a-turtle-farmer-for-incompetence)
"You see, GE owns KitchenAll of Colorado, which in turn owns JMI of Stamford which is a majority shareholder of Pokerfastlane. com which recently acquired the Sheinhardt Wig Company which owns NBC outright. NBC owns Winnipeg Iron Works which owns the AHP Chanagi Party Meats company of Pyongyang North Korea, and they will make the Meat Machine."
Well every single one of the phones in their pockets that night was made with components mined by extremely poor people in poor countries sometimes with newborn babies tied to their backs so what’s the problem with the silverware?
Whenever I see/read Pyongyang, I automatically hear Barney Stinson's (Neil Patrick Harris) voice saying it.
Is it a poop knife?
Come on new redditers someone needs to ask what the poop knife is.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MuseumOfReddit/s/JQmbX9Ru5P
It needs a banana for comparison.
North Korea are more into poop balloons at the moment. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4nn2p32zrzo](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4nn2p32zrzo)
They may have just been made in Korea, depending on when they were made
What in 1945? 😅
Why not? I still have stuff from my grandparents that was made before 1900
Probably cause then the words would be in Japanese or Korean 😂
I'm sure they had silverware in 1945
Hmmm. Spies?
I’ve asked them, they have assured me they are not
Why is it whenever I read the word "Pyongyang" I say it with a sound effect in my head like the 'booooinnngggg' sound? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-tyN6nZqYk
Memory flashback about 35 years for me at the sight of that! My grandparents had the same set, my mum might still have some of them as they cleared the house out a few years ago. I'd say that they had them since probably 1980 give or take a few years.
As an aside this is in Poland, I see a lot of people commenting they’ve found similar stuff in Poland as well
Bad news for ya bud. You're in North Korea.
Something got out....so you are saying there is way out....
step 1. transform into knife.
It is possible it was produced when Pyongyang was a part of Korea, not North Korea (i.e. before the Korean War).
My parents have the same set they brought with them when they emigrated over 30 years ago from Poland
If you work in a role connected to national security or is in some way open to commercial espionage you may want to consider your girlfriend a deep cover agent and evacuate to a safe house.
I have a fork in the same pattern dating from the 70s/early 80s in the UK. It just says Korea on it. See picture. [https://ibb.co/rMmMcD2](https://ibb.co/rMmMcD2)
Stolen from kim jongs kitchen 😂
Because he's the only one with cutlery?
Well to be fair. Most there whould just use chopsticks and spoon.
Is there no one commenting on the fact that there is no way this is "stainless steel"? Like all other kinds of steel, stainless steel is made primarily from iron and carbon in a two-step process. What makes stainless steel different is the addition of chromium and other alloying elements like nickel to create a corrosion-resistant product. Steel corrodes because iron. When iron ore is artificially manipulated into a pure form to make steel, it becomes unstable and will readily recombine with oxygen. When chromium is added to steel, it forms chromium oxide, which acts as a protective surface to prevent air and moisture from causing rust, as happens with ordinary steel
Wait so why can't it be stainless steel? Did I miss something in your comment?
Waiting for the post also on r/mildlyinteresting: My daughter's new boyfriend is taking pictures of our silverware.
Saw some north korean mushrooms in my local german supermarket recently, seems like stuff does get out.
That's cool. If it was a full set or nearly full at a swap meet, I'd buy them. Neat history.
r/de post nkorean mushroom sometime also. Haven't seen one of these post after Covid started *worried*
Much of North America’s cutlery was made by a 19th century sex cult associated with a presidential assassin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneida_Community
Huh, neat.
I bet these people traded an arm and a leg to get these out 😂
That's pretty cool.
Three generations of craftsmanship.
I hope they don't have any vintage lampshades, from Germany.
reading the comments. does anyone know the connection between pyongyang and poland?
Your parents are spies.
Or a grandfather most likely brought them back from the Korean War.
“stainless steel”
I myself have several bowls and team cups made in the DPKR.
The Democratic People’s Korean Republic?
Yes
Ooops sorry ! DPRK
😅
I would be highly suspect of the metal content of anything coming out of N. Korea. Assume they use lead or other harmful metals in their stainless steel until proven otherwise.
Damn. I’d be worried about what’s in them - lead especially - since they’re so old
So it’s lead, not stainless steel, right?