North Korea and China launch Myohyang beer brand in Chinese market

A North Korea-China joint venture introduced a new beer brand called Myohyang beer to the Chinese market in 2026, positioning it as a tangible product of expanding economic cooperation between Pyongyang and Beijing.

According to a Daily NK source, the Jagang Joint Venture Company, a North Korea-China joint enterprise, released a one-liter plastic bottle prototype of Myohyang beer in the Chinese market in early May for tasting events and trial sales, and has since moved into a full-scale push to expand its distribution network across China.

The company, which had been concentrating its promotional efforts on border regions in Liaoning and Jilin provinces, recently began recruiting distributors, signaling a shift toward building out a wider sales network.

Several North Korean beer brands already circulate in China, including Taedonggang beer, Tumangang beer, and Pado beer, all of which are sold primarily in glass bottles. Myohyang beer differentiates itself by using a large-format, one-liter plastic bottle, a format the company is promoting as better suited to online sales and courier delivery within China. The company’s promotional materials cite the reduced risk of breakage during shipping as a key selling point.

Myohyang mountain brand and pricing challenges

Promotional imagery for the beer draws heavily on Mount Myohyang, one of North Korea’s most celebrated scenic destinations and a site relatively familiar to Chinese visitors who have traveled to the country. The brand’s marketing strategy centers on associations with the mountain’s natural environment and water quality, positioning Myohyang beer as a clean, premium product.

The source said organizers appeared to calculate that the mountain’s name recognition among Chinese tourists with prior North Korea experience would help the brand establish initial awareness quickly.

Early consumer response to the taste has been largely positive. Participants in tasting events described Myohyang beer as similar in flavor to Taedonggang No. 2, the most widely consumed North Korean beer in China. Taedonggang No. 2 is brewed with a blend of 70% barley malt and 30% white rice, producing a smooth, mild taste with low hop bitterness.

However, Myohyang beer is priced at around 30 Chinese yuan (approximately $4.10) per bottle, roughly double the cost of comparable North Korean beers, and consumer reactions suggest that price may be a significant obstacle regardless of taste. Established North Korean labels and domestic Chinese brands already hold strong positions in the market through competitive pricing and well-developed distribution networks, making entry difficult for a new label.

Despite those hurdles, some observers are reading the launch as more than a routine product release. Within the context of broadening North Korea-China joint ventures, the beer is being viewed as a concrete deliverable from that cooperation.

The source said a group known as the 108 Group, which has been actively brokering investment attraction and production and distribution joint ventures between China and North Korea, is behind the Jagang Joint Venture Company’s operations, and that Myohyang beer is being assessed as one of the first tangible outcomes of the group’s work.

“How stably Myohyang beer manages to establish itself in the Chinese market could become a test of the viability of future North Korea-China joint ventures,” the source said, noting the level of local interest in the brand’s commercial performance.

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