[FrancoisBosun]

I'm mostly surprised about the free admission of bribery:

> However, I soon found that a bottle of Johnie Walker Black Label handed out at particularly frustrating moments made things miraculously happen a lot quicker. Oh how the North Koreans loved their whiskey.

[ThrowawayTestr]

That's just diplomacy.

[ceejayoz]

Long history of it, too.

The US made special clear coke in nondescript bottles for Marshal of the Soviet Union Zhukov so he could look like he was drinking vodka instead of the illegal Western drink.

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-secret-clear-coca-cola-fo...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Coke

[cm2187]

Plus I guess it inspires respect to finish a bottle of what people assume is vodka, bottom up. An empty bottle of vodka makes a great water container to walk around the office with and drink from the bottle between meetings.

[spitfire]

So thats where crystal Pepsi came from!

Bloody Commie soda!

[Dah00n]

Suddenly taste much better!

[yeahwhatever10]

Damn the downvotes, this is a good joke!

[justsomehnguy]

> so he could look like he was drinking vodka

Ah, yes, the famous Russian carbonated vodka.

[Xeyz0r]

How cultural sensitivity and creative diplomacy have been used throughout history.

[contingencies]

Re-gifting would have likely occurred. Like: obtain bottle, pass to your superior, cement next-level promotion.

[jowdones]

I'm surprised you're surprised. I guess people from countries with fully functional monetary systems don't have an intuitive view how things work where money are essentially worthless. Most communist countries were like this during the centralized and hence highly disfunctional economy. You were paid a wage but essentially could shove it up your ass coze there was little to nothing to buy with it. Which made barter the only viable alternative. And you know what works best for barter? Non-fungible goods: alcohol, cigarettes and coffee. You can store them for years and still be good.

Those bottles of whiskey/whisky were NEVER drank, I bet you. They effectively circulate as currency, the only one that actually buys you things in a disfunctional economy: a visit to the doctor, exams, favors or just goods that theoretically can be bought with money but are not in stock. Suddenly found in stock for a bottle of whiskey.

[ido]

> Non-fungible goods: alcohol, cigarettes and coffee.

Aren’t all of these fungible?

[barfingclouds]

Less fungible

[smcl]

Sounds like they loved their whisky

[pixxel]

If you’re going to be anal, explain why:

“Whisky (no e) refers to Scottish, Canadian, or Japanese grain spirits. Whiskey (with an e) refers to grain spirits distilled in Ireland and the United States.”

Johnnie Walker Black Label is Scottish, hence no ‘e’.

[smcl]

Oof turning that around a bit - when you are gonna be snarky, try to be correct. Outside of Scotland and Ireland it's not that black & white. There are also Canadian whiskeys (Benjamin Chapman, Masterton's) and there are US whiskys (like Makers Mark).

I was trying to be light-hearted and playful - most people know Scotch is "whisky". If I was being anal I'd have corrected their misspelling of "Johnnie"

[Dah00n]

I'm not sure if that is the whole story. It is as much a case of where the person writing is from. According to Wikipedia both are used. I, as a non-USAnian, would definitely not spell it Whiskey, but Whisky, unless I'm talking about a brand name, no matter if it is from the US or not. It would be like me writing Color instead of Colour when writing in English. One is English, one is not.

[cmrdporcupine]

In Canada we're amazing, we have both British and American conventions mixed together in a seemingly random way:

E.g. "Colourize" is Canadian English (vs American "colorize" or UK "colourise")

[samus]

It's in the understanding that a lot of the difficulties that require this are fabricated and supposed to show the foreigners who is in charge.

[xenospn]

When I went there (2005-6), we were told to bring foreign cigarettes. And this is how I ended up importing Israeli into North Korea. Hopefully they liked them!

[RegnisGnaw]

I went in 2014. I was told Marlboro cigs. For a country that hates the US officially everyone loves those Marlboros.

[input_sh]

In any unstable situation (war, sanctions, blockade, siege, whatever), cigarettes quickly turn into a currency. They're light as a feather, they don't spoil, and there's an ever-increasing demand for them. Two packs will get you more than a gold necklace in any such situation, worldwide.

[RegnisGnaw]

I understand cigarettes in the context. They just wanted Marlboros more than other brands. Some of the others in the group has Camels and some other famous British brand, but they were not as popular as American Marlboros.