On July 27 Juche 107 (2018) Korea Stamp Corporation issued a set with 2 stamps at 10 and 30 won and a souvenir sheet at 70 won to commemorate the 65th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War, the DPRK recognized naming for the Korean War, which ended 27 July 1953.
The stamp set was issued after the first ever Summit Meeting and Talks between DPRK and USA hold on Sentosa Island of Singapore on 12 June 2018 Juche 107 (2018) between Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un meeting and US President Donald J. Trump.
According to information from Korea Stamp Corporation the stamp set was subsequently recalled and withdrawn “due to the situation between DPRK and US”. The circulated number of the withdrawn stamps and the souvenir sheet, before they were recalled, is unknown, but is should be very low, probably less than 200 perforated and significantly less imperforated.
The stamps have not been published on the website of Korea Stamp Corporation neither of Korea Stamp Society nor possible to order from Korea Stamp Corporation. As a perennial client to the North Koran Stamp Agency, I received the set in a major quantity on 16 January Juche 108 (2019), so the must have been withdrawn after that time.
On January 19-21 Juche 108 (2019) North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui, U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Stephen Biegun and South Korean negotiator Lee Do-hoon met outside Stockholm to discuss “confidence building, economic development and long-term engagement” on the Korean peninsula. So, on February 27-28 Juche 108 ( 2019) US President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met in Hanoi, Vietnam for their second summit. It is to assume that this stamp set was withdraw between or after those meetings as a gesture of friendship.
The KSC Catalogue numbers are:
- sp5173B-5173C: perforated stamps of 10+30 won
- sp5173D: perforated souvenir sheet of 70 won
- si5173B-5173C: imperforated stamps of 10+30 won
- si5173D: imperforated souvenir sheet of 70 won
- fp5173B-5173C: FDC with perforated stamps of 10+30 won
- fp5173D: FDC with perforated souvenir sheet of 70 won
- fi5173B-5173C: FDC with imperforated stamps of 10+30 won
- fi5173D: FDC with imperforated souvenir sheet of 70 won
Please note all images are from scans, not original (digital) artwork.
(This article was originally published on 26 August 2019, hence the comments dated August/September 2019, but to avoid confusion the article was dated later to the correct date of issue of these stamps.)
Due to the improvement of DPRK-US relationships, DPRK actually cancelled the issuance plan of 2018 anti-US month stamps. The original Stock No. were 5170-5173.
However, since the stamps were printed, and KSC usually supplied stamps to dealers earlier than actual issuance date, this set was still available at some Chinese dealers but the price was higher than other normal issued stamps.
KSC 5173B-D were issued and not withdrawn.
Withdrawn stamps image is available at http://www.e1988.com/picshow/?type=1&id=333209&bigcategory=A
Hi Chen,
the stamps on the link were never issued. they are unissued.
the set to 65th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Fatherland Liberation War were originally issued but then withdrawn.
Per-Olof
One of our (Board) members, Yong Sok Yi, sent us images of the imperforated versions of these stamps:
KSC5173B-C:
KSC5173D:
