Beer in North Korea - Digging Deeper

The beer in North Korea post prompted a couple of replies via Twitter:

Says@chuwyboy :

@JapanBrew They took apart a British brewery and shipped it all over to the north. Ironic thing was the brewery wasnt very god to start with

And from@beerinjapan

@JapanBrew I've been to North Korea and had that beer. NK isn't featured in my Beer in Korea app tho :)

Chuwy's post references the story told in this article from The Wiltshire Times. It leads off with this:

The Ushers brewery in Trowbridge used to produce award-winning traditional British real ales. After an extraordinary journey, it is now being used to brew a beer dubbed the "Pride of Pyongyang" in North Korea.

The article goes on to tell the rather amazing tale of how the brewery was taken apart and shipped to North Korea, where it was reassembled and put to work churning out DPRK beer. The people involved in the sale, from the brewery's former owner to a German go-between, recount the details of the exchange.

For one more angle on this exciting story, can we find any details in the WikiLeaks trove?

Beer in (North) Korea?

A New York Times article, retelling a Western scholar's reports of conditions in North Korea amid the recent tensions, contains this tidbit:

A beer factory was operating, however, and the visitor pronounced the Taedong River beer, a local brand, “very drinkable.”

Turns out, a Google query leads to plenty of info about the brew. A Wikipedia page describes the brewery's beginnings. A BBC article from 2009 tells of a TV ad for the beer, which was marketed as "Pride of Pyongyang." There are YouTube videos and a host of other info I have yet to read or watch.

Has anyone out there sampled this stuff?

Meanwhile, here is the commercial -