January 4, 2010
I expected this, but I didn’t expect it to be so sudden, or so dramatic:
http://newledger.com/2010/01/22357/
I expected this, but I didn’t expect it to be so sudden, or so dramatic:
The Seoul-based Open Radio for North Korea (ORNK), citing unidentified sources along the Sino-North Korean border, said that merchants were exchanging one yuan for 1,000 new North Korean won as of late last month, plummeting from the 50 won traded for every yuan on Dec. 3, right after Pyongyang introduced the new currency. [Yonhap]If my math is right, that’s 1,000 percent in less than a month.
Under the move, the communist country knocked two zeros off its currency without warning on Nov. 30 in the first such value adjustment since 1959.Yet already, the new won is worth half of what the old won was worth:
Before the currency reform took place, 1 yuan was worth around 588 old won, which is equivalent to 5.88 new won.Open Radio for North Korea is run by a South Korean acquaintance of mine who goes by the name Young Howard. Howard, a former leftist, dissident, political prisoner, and thoroughly enigmatic figure, has assembled a network of North Korean informers who feed him news about events inside North Korea, which he then broadcasts into the North and to the foreign press. Open Radio is now commonly cited by some of the world’s foremost news sources. It cites two reasons for the new currency’s collapse: rumors (that is, a loss of confidence in the regime’s erratic monetary policy), and a new ban on holding or using foreign currency. READ MORE ...
http://newledger.com/2010/01/22357/
