While the United States pushes for new sanctions on North Korea, one trading company from the hermit state has creatively reinvented itself to survive. Its latest offer: A $50 root to "cure" cancer.

The Shinhung Trading Company has exported seafood, sold millions of dollars of iron ore to China's national railway and bypassed sanctions to import luxury goods from Japan.

But as a series of United Nations sanctions have taken those big ticket items off the plate, the firm has resorted to selling "North Korean specialties".

At an alcohol and sweets expo held recently in bustling Jinan, China, two North Korean women in purple gowns, with images of the North's departed dear leaders pinned to their lapels, manned Shinhung's booth.