Special to WorldTribune.com

By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com

North Korea is continuing to funnel its scarce resources to elite residents in Pyongyang in order to ensure their unwavering loyalty to the dynastic regime.

The effort is likely to worsen the country’s notorious discrimination policy and expose a society rampant with inequality.

The destitute country opened a department store earlier this year in the showcase city of Pyongyang offering luxury goods and high-end brands such as Chanel and Giorgio Armani, a source in Seoul said.

The Botonggang Department Store that opened in February also offers medicine, furniture and food imported from China and other nations.

Its main customers are members of the ruling elite as well as merchants who have managed to accumulate wealth by trading in private markets that have sprung across the isolated country in recent years.

In September, the North opened a large store that sells beef, pork and other meat and seafood in the Botonggang area in Pyongyang. It too is only open to the wealthy ruling class.

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  Botonggang Department Store, Chanel, Giorgio Armani, Inequality worsening in North Korea as luxury goods go on sale in Pyongyang, wealthy North Koreans