Daily NK has obtained a North Korean snack rolled out to squash demand for a popular South Korean treat that had first become a sensation among factory workers in the inter-Korean industrial complex and spread across the country. Known as ¡®Chocolate Danseolgi,¡¯ the snack displays a striking resemblance with the much-loved South Korean ¡®Choco Pie¡¯. 

The new treat is said to have been produced to cut off fantasies about the capitalist world its workers may harbor. 

North Korea¡¯s local ¡®Chocolate Danseolgi¡¯ snack produced to rival South Korea¡¯s ¡®Choco Pie¡¯ that  became widely popular in the North. Rolled out in May, the snack is being provided to the  North¡¯s Kaesong Industrial Complex workers. Image: Daily NK

Starting last month, North Korea has been providing its Kaesong factory workers with ¡®Danseolgi¡¯, according to a source who has ties with the North and passed on the new snack to Daily NK on the condition of anonymity. This comes after Pyongyang banned supplies of the famed ¡®Choco Pie¡¯ within the industrial complex last year, as they were being sold by the workers on the black market for good returns and gaining greater popularity across the country. 

The South Korean ¡®Choco Pie¡¯ snack was first introduced to Kaesong workers in 2006. Due to its soaring popularity, many had come to develop a sense of curiosity or fantasies about the South, the source said. Seeing the chocolate cake snack with marshmallow filling win over so much love, Pyongyang set out to create an alternative in the hopes of choking off demand. 

Last year, after banning ¡®Choco Pie¡¯ supplies, the North tried to force South Korean firms to provide its factory workers with a home-grown chocolate double-layered cake snack, and this year in March, it even rolled out a chocolate coated rice cake treat also similar to an existing South Korean product. 

Despite these efforts, local goods have failed to take off, as Kaesong workers are already acquainted with tastes from South Korea and are only eating the ¡®Danseolgi¡¯ as they have no other choice, according to the source. 

The treat is one of the ¡°latest products¡± put out for Kaesong workers. ¡°It was smuggled out of the country by way of a North Korean trader in the Rason Economic Special Zone who works with Chinese traders,¡± she explained.

¡°Currently in the North, the ¡®Chocolate Danseolgi¡¯ is being distributed to workers as supplies, and they¡¯re not sold on North Korea¡¯s regular markets,¡± she asserted. Every last ingredient used to make the snack, from the butter to the chocolate, is imported from China. 

Predictably, Kaesong workers invariably far prefer the taste of the original chocolate snack from South Korea, the source said, adding, ¡°North Korea will never be able to produce the South¡¯s Choco Pie.¡± 

One of Daily NK¡¯s reporters who tried out the North Korean ¡®Danseolgi¡¯ described the snack as ¡°decidedly lacking in chocolate flavor ¡± and ¡°being overwhelmingly pungent of butter.¡± The wrapper claims to include marshmallow in the product, but our taste tester reported any semblance of its texture to be nonexistent and noted that the cake itself is incredibly prone to crumbling.

*The content of this article was broadcast to the North Korean people via Unification Media Group.