North Korea currency change sparks panic
 

North Korea currency change sparks panic

December 4, 2009
By Michael Bristow
BBC News, Seoul

North Koreans are "devastated" following currency reforms that could wipe out their savings, reports say.

Ordinary people are reported to be desperately trying to buy as many goods as they can with the old currency while it is still valid.

The government told its people on Monday that it was knocking two noughts off the nominal value of banknotes.

Experts say this will help tackle inflation and increase officials' control over an already impoverished population.

They say the Pyongyang government particularly wants to rein in the activities of free markets that have sprung up across North Korea.

Economic hardship

The North Korean government was initially quiet about the reform - telling its own people, but not the rest of the world.

But on Friday South Korea's Yonhap news agency said a Japan-based newspaper with links to the North had confirmed the news.

Yonhap quoted an interview the newspaper had conducted with a North Korean central bank official.

The North Korean banker said international sanctions, natural disasters and the fall of the communist bloc had created economic hardship.

This has forced the North to adjust its currency, Yonhap quoted the official as saying.
Under the new system, an old 1,000 North Korean won note will now be worth just 10 won.

Continues: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8394987.stm

Re: North Korea currency change sparks panic
 

Now that IS funny!

Other than not having to deal with as many zero's at the end of a bag of rice's price tag... just what does it change?

Window dressing, says I,

Fred

Re: North Korea currency change sparks panic
 

N.Korea's Currency Reform Could End in Chaos

January 4, 2010

The North Korean military is on alert for a possible civil uprising following last week's sudden currency reform, according to a Russian business newspaper citing foreign diplomats in the communist country. The currency reform involved the exchange of only limited amounts of old bills at a rate of 100:1, with the state confiscating the remainder. People who are afraid of exposing the size of their wealth have no choice but to hide their old bills. It is difficult to ascertain the actual circumstances, but it is apparent the North Korean regime is virtually stealing money equivalent to two or three months' wages for the average worker. And public discontent is rising to the degree that the regime had to order the military on standby to quell riots.

The currency reform may seem illogical, but it appears to follow careful political considerations. Ever since the regime became unable to feed its own people, a primitive form of the market economy in the form of open-air markets emerged everywhere as North Koreans struggled to stay alive. A certain group of North Koreans were able to amass a little wealth that way, and when the gap between rich and poor began to widen in a country where such differences are acutely visible, the regime probably began to view them as a threat to the system.

In other words, the currency revaluation was probably aimed at destroying the middle class before it swells any further and becomes a real threat...

Continues: http://english.chosun.com/site/data/...120700659.html

SOURCE: http://solari.com/blog/

Re: North Korea currency change sparks panic
 

Fear, blah blah blah.

North Koreans have little to fear from their clueless leader.

Re: North Korea currency change sparks panic
 

Hi peaceandlove,

The scheme in North Korea is nothing too radical. Here in Brazil in the 1980's I beleive, the government simply kidnapped money from the populations' savings accounts in the banks. Of course the people with links to the inside knew what was going to happen and withdrew their savings, but the vast majority of the populous knew nothing and found their money gone.

A similar thing happened I also beleive in Argentina.

Another reat feat in Brazil was when the government decided to weaken the Real against the US$ to improve exports. Once again those in the know bought their dollars the day before the action and the day after the Real was worth (against the dollar) half as much. Those that bought the dollars the day before could sell them again for twice as many R$ than they had bought them for.

As I understand it in the US and in the UK, our birth certificate makes us (the person named on the birth certificate) responsible for the national debt as in the case of these two nations the governments are actually corporations. I'm only just starting to read up on this so I'm not the most reliable to be asked for further information, perhaps somebody else knows more. But this liability makes it perfectly legal for these two governments 'charge' it's persons (named on the birth certificate) for any shortfalls.

I'm trying to find out if this is true for Brasil and what this could mean for a foreign national.

The mysterious wheelings and dealings of governments...

Best regards,

Steve

Re: North Korea currency change sparks panic
 

and the same thing could happen here.

Re: North Korea currency change sparks panic
 

I'm confused. What part of G. Edward Griffin's statement did you miss?????

Re: North Korea currency change sparks panic
 

Thanks Steve A for your insights!!!


North Korean currency crackdown fuels inflation, food shortages

By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, January 7, 2010

TOKYO -- Strong-armed currency reform in North Korea, which has confiscated the savings of small businesses and forbidden the use of foreign money, is now causing runaway inflation and contributing to food shortages, according to several reports from inside the closed state.

Currency reform is part of an aggressive crackdown on free markets by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

His government has ordered the closure by the end of March of a large wholesale market in the northeastern port city of Chongjin, according to Good Friends, a Seoul-based aid group with a network of informants inside the country. Another major wholesale market near the capital, Pyongyang, was shut down in June.

Continues: http://www.campaignforliberty.com/wire.php?view=9720

Re: North Korea currency change sparks panic
 

Dear Peace and Love --

thank you SO much for bringing this to our attention ...... the people of North Korea are certainly a searing example of ["I]"the least of these[/I] ...... whom we are to ignore at our own peril!! :tears: and it's so easy to forget about such quiet crises, the silent suffering going on not ONLY in N. Korea but in so many OTHER similar spots across the globe. thanks so much, P&L, for this timely reminder.

hippihillbobbi

Re: North Korea currency change sparks panic
 

Steve_A quote:
The government created a look-a-like legal fiction, that is, a corperate vehicle for interfacing with the public side of government.

Important..
They did not disclose this fact to the people, that being, the ones expected to take that responsibility. Therefore, as an operation of Law, that contract our Mother signed on our behalf, which the government forced and deceptively encouraged is void Ab-intio. (from the beginning)

So It is not legal at all. Its just people do not understand the language of law and assume they are liable, when clearly they are NOT.

You have the right to reverse this assumption and revoke the queens authority to act on your behalf, particularly the fact that your mother never had your consent to sign such contracts and was not knowlagable of the consequenses of them.