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ANGRY NORTH KOREANS BURN BANKNOTES IN PROTESTLoren Gatch writes: To curb unauthorized market activity, the North Korean government has forced a revaluation of the currency, lopping off two zeros from old denominations and limiting the ability of people to change old money supplies for the new notes. The effect will be to sharply reduce the money supply, effectively confiscating the balances of black market traders. The things you can do when you run a dictatorship! Gorbachev pulled off something similar in Russia in 1991.
Loren referenced a New York Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/business/global/02korea.html), but here's another one with an interesting twist.
-Editor
The Daily NK website said people had been burning piles of old bills in anger over the government's reported redenomination of the currency. The move is said to have knocked two zeros off the nominal value of each banknote, although Pyongyang has not confirmed the action. An image of the new notes has appeared in the Japan-based Choson Sinbo paper. North Korea's official media has kept quiet over any reform of the currency, but newspapers based in South Korea and Japan have said that the government informed citizens and foreign embassies of the move on Monday.
To read the complete article, see:
North Korea currency reform sparks anger
(news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8395268.stm)
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