Please Identify Foreign Writing

I have not seen this writing before.
What country is this stamp from please?
Thank you,
SueStamps

In the Scott catalog, North Korea #1346(25Jun1975)

Also, your stamp is CTO (canceled-to-order), not a genuine postally used stamp. Genuine postally used stamps from North Korea are difficult to get.

khj,
Thank you sooooo much. I really appreciate it.
I have already added a little note with the stamp with the information.

That's very interesting that North Korean stamps are hard to come by. I wonder why?

I have a lot of CTO stamps and enjoy them (almost) as much as the other stamps.

Thanks again, many many THANKS!
SueStamps

It is illegal to bring in stamps from North Korea into the US.

However, the fact is CTO's, including many first day cancels, are quite plentiful. Genuine postally used stamps are a different story. Let's just say the private mail volume in North Korea is not a whole lot. Finding someone willing to collect them and smuggle them out of North Korea is also not that easy. I don't think I've ever physically seen a genuine non-government cover mailed out of North Korea through the general mailstream, although I do believe there is some mail volume that streams north through China. North Korea is such a closed society.

Wow, that is fascinating !
I printed out what you wrote and have added a new page, thanks to you, in my stamp album. I love learning about stuff like this!
Thanks again!
SueStamps

SueStamps,

Here is the link to the Korea Stamp Society if interested in learning more about stamps from North Korea. :)

http://www.pennfamily.org/KSS-USA/kss-main.html

Additionally, here's a link to a dutch stamp dealer who was arrested in North Korea in August!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/..._926935.html

beezer,
Thank you for the links.
I read a thread on this forum where someone has created a database using Excel and that is what I just did. I will now put all the website links that people post into it.

Great article too. I did not know that North Korea allowed tourists. I am "from" Seoul, but was abandoned, no birth certificate...so who knows, I could actually been born up north!

Thanks again!
(Sook-Hee) SueStamps!

The border between North and South Korea is heavily militarized. But there is a bustling smuggling operation at the border between China and North Korea. Very risky if you get caught, especially if you are a North Korean national.

Sue, glad that you were able to make it to the US!

This web site link was provided earlier, but I suggest you advance toward the bottom of this page and read about the extreme variations between known catalog values for any given stamp from North Korea:

http://www.pennfamily.org/KSS-USA/nk-warning.htm

Somewhere in my boxes of envelopes (I keep everything as it comes in - minus metered mail - intact on envelope).
One of my other hobbies is Short Wave Listenting and Amateur RAdio. If memory serves me correctly, I did receiveive a letter - with stamps) posted from North Korea several years back from a Amateur Radio operator, as well as a letter (I think with stamps) from Voice of Korea in Pyongyang years ago as well. I figured if I can get a ltter to them, they can get a letter to me. Seemed to work. If you truely want to get mail from any country, you can always write to their Government sponsored short wave station and ask for a program schedule, and while you have their attention, ask if they could use postage stamps on their return letter. Throw in a couple of bucks to cover their expenses and "poof" you have a nice cover from somewhere!
If you need addresses for any station in any country drop me an email and I will get one to you.

Some of my favorites that I have received are from Tibet and Nepal (Tibet even threw in some extra stamps for my collection).

If, for some reason, the post office deems your mail as "not deliverable", you get a nice returned cover back with auxillary markings! So, it is a win-win thing.

When I was in junior high (early 1980s) I had a friend who used to send letters/envelopes to made up addresses overseas just so that they'd get all those cool cancellations and overprints before being returned.
I'd love to know if he's still got all those covers now.