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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| 'Women Power' Gathers Against Nork Currency Shock |
| 2009-12-08 |
| North Korea's women are emerging as a formidable force in the face of controversial currency reforms, sources said Monday. Most of the market traders in the North are women in their 40s and 50s trying to earn enough to feed their children. And now they are openly expressing their anger as the draconian reforms, which replace the currency at a rate of 100:1 and effectively confiscate any savings, make their lives even more difficult. "The women are tough and defiant," a source said, "and now they are angry. Markets are turning into places of protest against North Korean leader Kim Jong-il." The women gather to accuse the authorities, defying threats of arrest. Organizations reporting on life in North Korea say prices denominated in new won are already soaring. Activist organization Good Friends said rice sold for 16-17 new won per kg in the Pyongyang market until Dec. 2 jumped to 50 won on Dec. 3. Another sources said there are rumors of cutthroat inflation because market traders are hoarding food. Rumors have it that the price of an egg has risen from 300 old won to 7,000. But the North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity, a group of defectors, said food rations are being distributed at state offices and the initial chaos is dying down in North Hamgyong Province, including Onsong, Hoeryong and Musan. The regime claims food rations will soon resume across the board, so there will be no need of money. But many North Koreans remember the millions who starved to death in the mid- and late 1990s and are unlikely to be fooled by such promises. Meanwhile, a seminar hosted by the Korea Peace Institute heard that the nascent middle class and the rich will not be too badly affected because they appear to have hard currency stashed away, according to Dong Yong-seung, a senior fellow at the Samsung Economic Research Institute. But he added the living conditions of ordinary people will deteriorate rapidly. KPI director Yoon Young-kwan, a professor at Seoul National University, said, "The currency reform is the first round in a standoff between the North Korean government and market forces. There will be many more." Dr. Kim Young-yoon of the Korea Institute for National Unification stressed the need to "pay attention to the North Korean residents who might be bearing a greater grudge and becoming more defiant." The reforms could also affect the joint-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex. Dr. Cho Bong-Hyun, a North Korea analyst with the Industrial Bank of Korea, said there is a good chance that the North will ask for a wage rise for workers there next year |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #2 In much of the world women leave the politics of running the country to the menfolk to manage, and only step in when the men let the situation get out of hand. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-12-08 13:44 |
| #1 Women seem quite happy to coexist with Fascism until it stops them buying trinkets. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2009-12-08 05:33 |