North Korea’s largest denomination monetary unit is to be
entirely replaced by 2017, multiple sources inside North Korea have reported to Daily
NK. The existing 5000 KPW [Korean People’s Won] bill features the likeness of
Kim Il Sung alone, whereas the new note will feature Kim Jong Il as well. This marks
the latest step in state efforts to idolize both the first two generations of the
Kim dynasty so as to confer greater legitimacy upon the third.
“Enterprise
managers informed their workers in the morning that the 5000 won note is to be replaced
with one featuring both the Kims and that this will done by 2017. But they said it is no cause for alarm,” a source in Yangkang Province reported to Daily NK on
July 31st. “The directive states they will withdraw all the old 5000 KPW notes,
even those outside the country.”
“There
was a rumor about a new 5000 won bill going around the market last week,
because bookkeepers were getting taught about it,” the source went on. “The new
bills aren’t in circulation yet, though, and both of them will be in use
simultaneously until 2017.”
 The current 5000 KPW bill, which was put into circulation on November 30th, 2009 as part of an infamous currency redenomination. | Image: Daily NK |
A
second source in North Hamkyung Province confirmed the story, saying, “Regional
bank officials called in heads of people’s units [inminban] to tell them that the 5000 won would be switched. They
told the people’s unit heads to manage the new money very carefully as
likenesses of both the Kims appear on it.”
North
Korea’s 5000 KPW bill has a relatively brief history. It first appeared in
2005 featuring a grave, youthful likeness of Kim Il Sung. This was then
replaced with a note featuring Kim’s benevolent, smiling taeyang-sang in 2009. Both the 100 and 1000 KPW notes were also
replaced with ones featuring the image.
 This smiling “taeyang-sang” portrait of Kim Il Sung is the image now used to represent the former leader. | Image: Destination Pyongyang |
Despite state efforts to portray it as well-planned and no cause for concern, markets reacted badly to the currency swap news. Currency exchange rates in Yangkang
Province went through the roof, rising by 1500 KPW in a single day. Many sellers
reportedly refused to accept the old 5000 KPW notes, clashing with worried consumers trying to use
them. In the middle were others spreading false information to try and profit from the currency confusion.
Predictably,
local residents are uncertain. The source elaborated, “We can’t believe
anything the authorities say these days, so nobody really trusts that they’ll actually
change all our money for us. People fear that if they can’t replace all their 5000 won notes, just like the last time, they’ll lose all their money.”
At the same time, other residents have adopted a more sanguine outlook, expressing relief that the new
policy doesn’t resemble the 2009 currency redenomination. To this group, it is
enough that the “final image of the Suryong
appears on the note” since “it means they won’t be as merciless as in the
reform of 2009.”
Nevertheless, keen to head off any possibility of an angry responses to the currency swap, sources say that workers
are being continuously informed that it is going to be possible to swap all old
versions of the 5000 won bill with its replacement at a 1:1 rate.
However, “They’ve never once kept a promise made to the people, so they can’t assure us of anything this time,” the source said. “There is even a bit of 5000 won panic buying going on.”
The goal of
the currency redenomination of November 30, 2009 was officially to bring
inflation under control and eliminate monetary overhang, but the result of the
100:1 redenomination on the ground was mass panic and, primarily, the sense
that the state had destroyed citizen’s savings, turning hard-won money into worthless bits of paper.
NKnet researcher Kim Young Hwan, analyzing the
aims of the new policy, told Daily NK today, “As his era is just getting into
its stride, so Kim Jong Eun must idolize Kim Jong Il in order to raise his own
status, and give the impression that he is a leader possessed of a great sense
of filial piety.”
“By idolizing his grandfather and father,
he can propagate the notion at home and abroad that the legitimacy of the Mt.
Baekdu bloodline is with him,” Kim concluded.
