WHEN Miniso said in January that its stores would "bring the happiness of stress-free shopping to the Koreans", you would be forgiven for thinking they were referring to emporium-loving Seoulites. In fact, the home-goods store, co-founded by a Chinese entrepreneur and ajapanese designer, was announcing that it would be taking its capitalist trinkets into (ostensibly socialist) North Korea. In a joint-venture deal with one of the country's state-owned enterprises, it agreed to establish the first foreign-branded chain store in Pyongyang, the destitute country's showcase capital.
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