North Korea quiet on won revaluation
- Source: Global Times
- [09:25 December 02 2009]
- Comments
Tourists in the South Korean city of Paju, just south of the border between the two Koreas, look Tuesday at a set of North Korean banknotes, which are sold as souvenirs. Photo: CFP
By Qiu Wei
Details were sparse out of North Korea Tuesday over what appears to be a sudden and drastic revaluation of its currency.
South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said North Koreans started exchanging their old won notes for new ones Monday. One new won was said to be worth 100 old wons, and the move was made in a bid to curb inflation and tame black-market trade, according to various media reports.
China's Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday that North Korean foreign ministry officials had contacted foreign embassies in Pyongyang, including China's, to notify them of the change.
The move marks the first time in 17 years that the North has revamped its currency, but Xinhua reported that "no reasons were given for the sudden change."
A staff member specializing in economic and commercial affairs at the North Korean embassy in Beijing, who refused to be named, would only tell the Global Times Tuesday that he had "no knowledge on the issue."
Officials and state media in Pyongyang also kept quiet Tuesday, unlike they had in previous currency reforms, Yonhap said.
"We checked the state media today, including Rodong Sinmun, but there was no such report,"South Korea's Unification Ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung was quoted by Yonhap as saying.
Currency reforms had always been reported by the North's official media, led by Rodong Sinmun, on the day they were implemented, Yonhap said.
The Unification Ministry said the government had received tipoffs about such a move but couldn't confirm it was taking place, Reuters reported.
But Yonhap said the main aim appeared to be curbing inflation because the currency's value had slumped since limited economic reforms were introduced in 2002, and the reforms were largely rolled back in 2005.
