{"id":44991,"date":"2020-05-25T11:06:19","date_gmt":"2020-05-25T02:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=44991"},"modified":"2020-05-25T11:09:56","modified_gmt":"2020-05-25T02:09:56","slug":"hamhung-currency-broker-sentenced-life-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/hamhung-currency-broker-sentenced-life-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamhung currency broker sentenced to life in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A currency broker charged with running an illegal currency exchange business in Hamhung, South Hamgyong Province, was recently sentenced to life imprisonment during a public trial, Daily NK has learned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Earlier this month, a woman in her 50s identified only as \u201cKim\u201d was arrested and put on public trial for defying official orders and selling dollars at the Songchon River embankment in downtown Hamhung, according to a Daily NK source in South Hamgyong Province on May 22.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the source, Kim was a well-known currency seller in the region and had made a lot of money over many years through her currency exchange business. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In mid-April, however, local police patrolling Sapo Market caught Kim clandestinely attempting to sell US dollars in exchange for North Korean currency.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">North Koreans generally use private currency sellers to exchange foreign currency for North Korean won or the other way around. The value of the North Korean won is so low that people typically avoid exchanging currencies based on official North Korean exchange rates.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kim reportedly fought back against the police, even scratching their faces. The police officers then dragged Kim to her residence and searched her home. Kim, whose anger had not subsided, then sat atop a 25-kilogram sack of cash with a canister of gasoline and a lighter in her hands, threatening that \u201cI would rather burn everything than have my money taken away from me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ultimately, Kim was sentenced to life in prison for conducting illegal currency exchanges, obstructing the police from doing their jobs, and treason &#8211; for threatening to set herself on fire in a house with portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe trial was announced a day before it happened and <em>inminban <\/em>[North Korea&#8217;s lowest administrative unit]\u00a0leaders along with Sapo Market merchants were forced to watch it,\u201d the source said. \u201cAfter being sentenced, Kim was shackled and taken away by car.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe authorities crack down on foreign currency brokers whenever they\u2019re strapped for cash,\u201d the source said. \u201cThis doesn\u2019t make North Koreans happy, of course.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">North Korean authorities have always kept a close eye over currency exchanges between individuals; however, the woman\u2019s case suggests that the authorities are moving to crack down on illegal currency exchanges even more than in the past.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daily NK <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korea-forms-group-battle-illegal-foreign-currency-transactions\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reported<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> earlier this month that North Korea recently created \u201cGroup 1118,\u201d which is aimed at cracking down on illegal foreign currency transactions following the floating of public bonds in mid-April.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">North Korean officials are reportedly concerned that the flotation of the bonds could lead to a sudden increase in currency exchange rates which, in turn, could lower the value of the North Korean won. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>*Translated by Violet Kim<\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/%ED%95%A8%ED%9D%A5-%ED%98%84%ED%99%94%EC%9E%A5%EC%82%AC%EA%BE%BC-%EA%B3%B5%EA%B0%9C%EC%9E%AC%ED%8C%90%EC%84%9C-%EB%AC%B4%EA%B8%B0%EC%A7%95%EC%97%AD-%EC%84%A0%EA%B3%A0%EB%B0%9B%EC%95%84\/\">Read in Korean<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A currency broker charged with running an illegal currency exchange business in Hamhung, South Hamgyong Province, was recently sentenced to life imprisonment during a public trial, Daily NK has learned. Earlier this month, a woman in her 50s identified only as \u201cKim\u201d was arrested and put on public trial for defying official orders and selling [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":40825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[714,745,747,930],"class_list":["post-44991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-economy","tag-south-hamgyong-province","tag-hamhung","tag-foreign-currency"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hamhung currency broker sentenced to life in prison - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A broker charged with running an illegal currency exchange business in Hamhung was recently sentenced to life imprisonment during a public trial.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/hamhung-currency-broker-sentenced-life-prison\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hamhung currency broker sentenced to life in prison\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A broker charged with running an illegal currency exchange business in Hamhung was recently sentenced to life imprisonment during a public trial.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/hamhung-currency-broker-sentenced-life-prison\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-25T02:06:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-25T02:09:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/05\/2019-\ubd81\ub18d\ucd0c_3-\uc0b4\ub9bc\uc9d1-\uc21c\ucc9c-\uc7a5\ub9c8\ub2f9-\uc7a5\uc0ac\uafbc-\uc790\uc804\uac70-\uc804\uc790-\uc800\uc6b8.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lee Sang-yong\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lee Sang-yong\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/hamhung-currency-broker-sentenced-life-prison\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/hamhung-currency-broker-sentenced-life-prison\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lee Sang-yong\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/af77e9df0c71b46d0e8583adf9222a8f\"},\"headline\":\"Hamhung currency broker sentenced to life in prison\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-25T02:06:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-25T02:09:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/hamhung-currency-broker-sentenced-life-prison\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":475,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/hamhung-currency-broker-sentenced-life-prison\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2019\\\/05\\\/2019-\ubd81\ub18d\ucd0c_3-\uc0b4\ub9bc\uc9d1-\uc21c\ucc9c-\uc7a5\ub9c8\ub2f9-\uc7a5\uc0ac\uafbc-\uc790\uc804\uac70-\uc804\uc790-\uc800\uc6b8.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"economy\",\"south hamgyong province\",\"hamhung\",\"foreign currency\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/hamhung-currency-broker-sentenced-life-prison\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/hamhung-currency-broker-sentenced-life-prison\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/hamhung-currency-broker-sentenced-life-prison\\\/\",\"name\":\"Hamhung currency broker sentenced to life in prison - 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