North Korea Executes Official After Currency Grab Sparks Unrest
March 17, 2010, 11:23 PM EDTBy Bomi Lim
March 18 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea executed an official of the ruling party last week, holding him responsible for unrest sparked by a botched currency revaluation aimed at reasserting the regime’s grip on power, according to media reports.
Pak Nam Gi, who was fired earlier this year from his post as Workers’ Party head of finance and planning, was shot to death in Pyongyang for intentionally harming the country’s economy, Yonhap News reported, citing people it didn’t identify. Free North Korea Radio, run by North Korean defectors in Seoul, yesterday reported widespread rumors of the execution.
The reported execution is the latest sign of efforts by Kim Jong Il’s government to appease the country’s people after the currency revaluation fueled inflation, worsened shortages of goods and food, and decimated savings. Premier Kim Yong Il made a rare public apology after the currency was devalued between Nov. 30 and Dec. 6, and the sum that could be exchanged for new notes was capped, according to Seoul-based rights groups including Good Friends.
“This failure weakens public trust in the central planning approach of the current government,” said Scott Snyder, of the New York-based Council on Foreign Relations. “This is bound to have negative ramifications for public support and for perceived legitimacy, even if it does not have immediate consequences for power and control in the regime.”
Pak was arrested in mid-January after being criticized at a party meeting, Yonhap said. He was fired from his post earlier this year, Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported last month.
Pak’s last reported public appearance was made on Jan. 3 by the official Korean Central News Agency, which said he accompanied leader Kim Jong Il on a visit to the construction site of a power station in Huichon.
While the government is pinning the reform failure on Pak, North Koreans believe he is being made a scapegoat, Yonhap and Free North Korea Radio said.
Rice prices jumped 70-fold since the currency devaluation, which knocked off two zeros off the face value of the old currency, according to Free North Korea Radio, which cited a North Korean in Chongjin on the east coast.
--Editors: Ben Richardson, Frank Longid
To contact the reporter on this story: Bomi Lim in Seoul at blim30@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bill Austin at billaustin@bloomberg.net
