{"id":56140,"date":"2023-09-05T17:00:56","date_gmt":"2023-09-05T08:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=56140"},"modified":"2026-04-05T15:17:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T06:17:55","slug":"hyesan-inminbans-encourage-people-exchange-foreign-currency-banks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/hyesan-inminbans-encourage-people-exchange-foreign-currency-banks\/","title":{"rendered":"Hyesan inminbans encourage people to exchange foreign currency at banks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em>Inminban<\/em> (neighborhood watch units) in Hyesan have recently been coaxing their members to exchange their foreign currency in banks, Daily NK has learned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in Yanggang Province told Daily NK on Friday that \u201cduring meetings in mid-August, neighborhood watch unit leaders said individuals who are caught using foreign currency face confiscations, big fines and criminal punishments.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The source said that the leaders urged people with dollars or yuan to \u201cgo to the bank and change them into won rather than suffer punishment and regret.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">People have long changed their money at private money changers to avoid uncomfortable questions from banks about the source of their money. However, the neighborhood watch unit leaders told people to use the banks with peace of mind as they \u201cwould never face\u201d interrogations there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The unit leaders also said banks offer better rates than private money changers, according to the source.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">North Korean banks offer rates of KPW 1,260 to the yuan, while private money changers offer KPW 1,255. For dollars, banks offer rates of KPW 8,350, while private money changers offer KPW 8,320, a KPW 30 difference.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">For example, if you were to change RMB 100 at a bank, you would receive KPW 126,000. However, through a private money changer, you would receive KPW 125,500, a difference of just KPW 500.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cBasically, people avoid changing money in banks because they\u2019re afraid of coming to the attention of law enforcement after the transaction,\u201d the source said. \u201cMoreover, it\u2019s only a KPW 500 difference for RMB 100, so who\u2019s going to use the bank?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">With most people suffering economic hardships, even just eating non-glutinous rice puts people on a watchlist now, so nobody is going to go to a bank for a few extra won, the source said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Police in Hyesan have been cracking down recently on professional money changers. The intensive crackdown appears aimed shrinking the currency exchange market with a view to force people to exchange their foreign currency at banks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Although the authorities are using every means possible to make people conduct transactions at banks, \u201cit won\u2019t be easy to change the minds of people who have no trust or faith in the banks,&#8221; the source claimed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Meanwhile, money changers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/hyesan-clamps-down-money-changers\/\">busted<\/a> in last month\u2019s crackdown in Hyesan are yet to be released.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cIn the past, they\u2019d be released after two or three days, or a week at the latest, but this time, it\u2019s been over 10 days and they\u2019ve yet to be released,\u201d the source said. \u201cGiven the circumstances, most money changers are laying low, with only a handful conducting transactions on the sly.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><i>Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p><em>Daily NK works with a network of sources who live inside North Korea, China and elsewhere. Their identities remain anonymous due to security concerns. More information about Daily NK\u2019s reporting partner network and information gathering activities can be found on our FAQ page\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/faq\/\">here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><i>Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/20230901-7\/\"><i>Read in Korean<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inminban (neighborhood watch units) in Hyesan have recently been coaxing their members to exchange their foreign currency in banks, Daily NK has learned. Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in Yanggang Province told Daily NK on Friday that \u201cduring meetings in mid-August, neighborhood watch unit leaders said individuals who are caught [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":38122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,645],"tags":[930,1589,1656],"class_list":["post-56140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-economy","tag-foreign-currency","tag-banking","tag-dprk"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hyesan inminbans encourage people to exchange foreign currency at banks - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026<\/title>\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\/hyesan-inminbans-encourage-people-exchange-foreign-currency-banks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hyesan inminbans encourage people to exchange foreign currency at banks\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Inminban (neighborhood watch units) in Hyesan have recently been coaxing their members to exchange their foreign currency in banks, Daily NK has learned. 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