Quick Response Codes, or QR Codes, commonly used for information downloads on mobile devices, are beginning to appear in Pyongyang, according to reports by the Singapore-based NGO Choson Exchange in early February.

Choson Exchange, which supports North Korean “entrepreneurs through business, economics and legal knowledge-sharing,” said the codes first appeared at sites in the capital during 2016.

“In Pyongyang, these codes have been showing up in all kinds of ways in the last six months: to mark exhibition items at the Sci-Tech Complex, in inventory systems at supermarkets, and on consumer products,” a February 1 post on