North Korea’s New Currency Collapses

The Seoul-based Open Radio for North Korea (ORNK), citing unidentified sources along the Sino-North Korean border, said that merchants were exchanging one yuan for 1,000 new North Korean won as of late last month, plummeting from the 50 won traded for every yuan on Dec. 3, right after Pyongyang introduced the new currency. [Yonhap]

If my math is right, that’s 1,000 percent in less than a month.

Under the move, the communist country knocked two zeros off its currency without warning on Nov. 30 in the first such value adjustment since 1959.

Yet already, the new won is worth half of what the old won was worth:

Before the currency reform took place, 1 yuan was worth around 588 old won, which is equivalent to 5.88 new won.

Wow. This is a really big deal.