1 Won

North Korea's 1978 note series introduced a two-tier currency system that would define the country's monetary policy for decades — separate notes were printed for domestic use and for foreign visitors, with the latter carrying special symbols to restrict where they could be spent. The P#18A belongs to the domestic series, circulating among ordinary citizens rather than the hard-currency shops reserved for foreigners and regime-connected elites.

The series was printed in Leipzig by the East German state printing house, a common arrangement among socialist bloc countries during this period.