N. Korea Revalues Currency to Curb Free Trade (private economy)

[pampango]

Source: New York Times

North Korea has revalued its currency, knocking two zeros off the nominal value of its notes, news reports said on Tuesday. Analysts in Seoul saw the move as a crude form of shock therapy designed to fight inflation and curb the North’s mushrooming free market.

Since a famine killed many North Koreans and shook the country’s ration system in the mid-1990s, its centrally planned economy, symbolized by state-run stores that sell goods at government-set prices, has coexisted with an unofficial economy where people sold home-grown food or goods smuggled from China.

The North Korean government also saw the increasingly vibrant markets as a conduit of capitalist ideas and outside influence on its tightly controlled populace. The ruling elite reportedly cracked down on the North’s biggest wholesale market, located in Pyongsong on the outskirts of Pyongyang, the capital, earlier this year, dispersing many traders into smaller markets in nearby districts.

The currency change will wipe out much of the wealth that traders have accumulated, dampening the market activities, Mr. Dong said. For the regime, it has the added political benefit of fighting a growing gap between rich and poor among ordinary citizens, Mr. Choi said.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/business/global/02korea.html

[JonQ]

1. It's a necessary move for Mr Jong to protect his people

they don't want capitalism or western ideas destroying their harmonious society. He must do this to protect them from us.

Also, they require that he build another water park for himself with aid money from the west. The sacrifices this guy makes for his people should humble us all.

[nyy1998]

2. LMAO!!!!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: