If you visited North Korea in the past decade or two and were feeling in need for a wake-up, you might recall buying slim-style canned coffee drinks by the famous Japanese brand Pokka.

Sold at hotel shops, highway stops, and even kiosks in far-flung corners of the country, the ongoing availability of Pokka drinks represents a rare case of a foreign consumer brand attaining nationwide popularity in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

But due to a combination of recent UN sanctions and a unilateral trade embargo in a country almost 3,000 miles away, something as seemingly innocent as a