Redenomination's Aftermath

On November 30th, in an attempt to combat both rising inflation and black-market trading, the North Korean government recalibrated the value of its currency. The ratio of old currency to new currency is 100:1, and 10,000-won can be exchanged for 10-won. Shops in Pyongyang were closed in order to readjust fixed item prices. Since the old currency will no longer be accepted, some also see this change as an attempt to get North Koreans who keep their money at home (because banks are not well-trusted) to bring it out, exchange it, and spend it, therefore stimulating the economy.

Simultaneous crackdown on border control along with redenomination has resulted in increased costs to cross into China. Crossing the border has evolved into a business. Once those who wanted to cross (and who had the money to) could haggle directly with the border guards. But with increased measurements of security, hopeful crossers now hire official brokers who pay the border guards, guides in China, and themselves charge a fee.

For those who do not have the personal privilege to leave the country, they are facing rising rates of starvation. Surprisingly, apparently, "Kim Jong Il handed down a handwritten decree to the chief secretaries of all provinces on January 20 in which it was stated, ‘Preventing anyone from starving to death is your obligation,’" and, that the "Chief Secretaries of Provincial Committees of the Party. . .handed on the threat to their subordinates, warning provincial cadres, 'You will resign if anyone starves to death, because this was a direct instruction from the General'" DailyNK.

I was neither aware that people could willingly cross the border if they had money, nor that the government would ever give aid to the people. Personally, I feel that Kim Jong Il is only giving food aid in order to demonstrate that North Korea, as Matt had put it during Voice of NK, "can make it on its own." It's not that I judge the ideology of a country attempting to be self-sustainable, but I most definitely don't condone their actions to the point that the government is restricting freedom and basic human rights. I also realized that I had only been viewing North Korea from the perspective under which I was first introduced to the situation: the North Korea displayed in "The Crossing." It's not to say that the film wasn't accurate, but it only offered one perspective of North Korea nonrepresentative of the country as a whole, nor of the dynamics of its entire population and the government.