Source:
Christian Science MonitorSeoul, South Korea - North Korea has confirmed a drastic reform of its currency in what's widely viewed as an attempt to control a growing black market and curbing runaway inflation.
Amid recent reports of protest and violence in Pyongyang among members of a small but restive middle class, a North Korean newspaper in Japan on Friday quoted an official with North Korea's central bank as confirming for the first time reports of currency reform instituted early this week.
North Korea's elite – a narrow band of those close to leader Kim Jong-il and his inner circle of family members, top aides, senior members of the armed forces, the Workers' Party, and the government – are assumed to have large caches of foreign currency, dollars, euros, or Chinese yuan. And the vast majority of North Koreans have almost no money of their own. That leaves the middle class feeling the sting the most.
"People are mad at Kim Jong-il," says Ha Tae Keung, head of Open Radio for North Korea, which broadcasts two hours a day of news from Seoul into North Korea. "Suddenly your wealth is gone, and you have nothing. It is very difficult."
Read more:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/1204/p06s07-woap.html
The total amount any one individual can turn in at the going rate of 100 to one is 100,000 won, which is about $600 US dollars. Anything above that can be redeemed for a thousand to one.
and according to this article
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6940482.eceShops and markets in North Korea have been closed and all cash transactions frozen after the Government’s shock announcement of a devaluation of its currency in an effort to crack down on the country’s burgeoning free-market economy.
In the capital, Pyongyang, yesterday only the few shops and restaurants permitted to trade in foreign currencies — patronised by the privileged elite and the city’s small foreign population — were open for business. All other enterprises and services based on cash, including markets, long-distance bus services, barbers’ shops, saunas and bath houses, were suspended until the revaluation of the won is completed next week.
“Loud sounds of weeping in every house have not ceased since the news was released,” a South Korean website quoted an inhabitant of Sinuiju, a city on the border with China, as saying. “Weeping and fighting between couples has not stopped anywhere. The atmosphere of the city is terrible now.”
Related Links
The website, dailynk.com, said that one elderly couple had killed themselves in North Hamgyong, a province adjacent to the Chinese border across which much illegal trading is carried out. It also reported anxiety among local officials that the currency revaluation would provoke civil unrest.
. . .
Just mind boggling
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
