North Korea is seeking to step up efforts to bring in foreign currency amid intensified international sanctions that is choking cash flows into the communist country.

According to a North Korea source on Tuesday, Pyongyang officials tried to extract as much cash as possible from foreigners participating in the Pyongyang marathon from April tenth to the eleventh and an arts festival commemorating Kim Il-sung’s birthday also this month. The source said North Korean officials took foreign tourists to shops and stores during tours of the North.

The source added that North Korean officials had remodeled retail outlets including the Daesong department store in the days leading up to the arts festival to attract foreign visitors. Pyongyang guides, meanwhile, also tried to sell high-end North Korean health food and dried fish.

Foreigners are often allowed to shop in Pyongyang’s Gwangbok department store, Paradise department store, the Daesong department store and the Pyongyang Department Store Number One.