Word: koreas
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...would Pyongyang make such a change? As usual, parsing the reasons the North Korean government does anything is murky business. But Pyongyang watchers in Seoul believe the crackdown comes for two main reasons. First, there has been a widening gap between the haves and the have-nots in North Korea, partly due to the prevalence of relatively free markets, says Cheong Seong-chang, senior fellow at the Sejong Institute, a think tank in Seoul. Since 2000, the bigger traders in North Korea have come to live a life "almost as lavish as South Koreans," says Cheong. "They have big refrigerators...
...imbalances will continue to persist, say analysts and North Korean defectors in Seoul. The largest and wealthiest of North Korea's traders, including government-owned companies, have long since swapped out of North Korean won and instead hold Chinese renminbi, yen or dollars as a store of value. The black-market value of the won has been decreasing for years, and North Korean inflation has been accelerating. The former head of a large North Korean trading firm who recently defected to Seoul told TIME, "Some kind of move like this was expected for a long time." And, he says...
...countries, economic reform can be a good thing. Even draconian changes to paper currency can help governments draw a line between "bad economic policies of the past, often after taming a hyperinflation," says Marcus Noland, an economist at Washington's Peterson Institute of International Economics. However, this being North Korea, one of the most repressive and impoverished nations in the world, that's not the case. The government announced that it would limit the amount an individual can exchange to just 100,000 won - or less than $40 at black-market exchange rates - and any amount above that threshold would...
...That, apparently, did little to quell the discontent, and for good reason. Since the famine in North Korea a decade ago, informal private markets have sprung up across the country, enabling an increasing number of North Koreans to feed themselves and earn a basic living by trading. The U.N. has estimated that about half the calories consumed in North Korea come from food purchased at private markets. Under the new plan, however, the small savers who run those private markets will be stripped of much of the cash they need to run their businesses...
...Besides the extra troops from the U.K., Italy, Georgia, Montenegro, South Korea and Turkey, have said they are ready to send more troops - though none have indicated numbers. Poland, Spain and Slovakia are thought to be considering reinforcements, along with non-European allies like New Zealand and Japan. But the Netherlands has already announced it is pulling out its 2,160 troops next year, and Canada will withdraw its 2,800-strong force by the end of 2011. (See pictures of the battle against the Taliban...