Wow, it seems that the Great Leader Kim Jung-Il of North Korea has decided it was in the best interest to revaluate the North Korean won, forcing people to switch to the new currency in five days by trading 1000 Won for 10 Won. I can’t say I know enough to comment on the complete impact this will take, but it seems like this is going to screw over a LOT of people. One can only hope that the people do what’s best for themselves … You can see commentary from those who know more on the subject here and here.
Some more articles with some great insight:
- WSJ article quotes defectors who say the won trades for 2,000 to 3,000 per dollar
- Daily NK (paper run by North Korean exiles in South Korea) article showing rice recently cost 2,000 won per kilo.
- Daily NK article showing rice now costs 200,000 won per kilo
This links were taken from the recent Reddit article which has made it to the top 10.
Hi Matt,
I wanted to congratulate you on getting accepted to SNU and finally going to Korea. I have been keeping up with your blog since it’s inception when you had the old blog. You finally realized the purpose of your blog.
Anyway, I know that you will be going to Korea soon.
I live in LA and I am taking a Korean class here. My teacher is a Ph.D. student at USC who is doing his dissertation on English grammar vs. Korean grammar and difficulties native English speakers have when they embark on learning Korean.
Long story short, he has made a survey for native English speakers who have an intermediate to advanced level of Korean proficiency. I am helping him with the survey. I was wondering if you could help out by participating in it. It should take you less than 1 hr. Do you know anyone else who could participate in it? The problem is most of the students in the Korean Culture Center here in LA are either Korean American or from other Asian countries and by default can NOT participate in the survey.
Anyway, thanks Matt.
I wish you the best in Korea.
Maik
@Maik
Can I do the survey in a week?
Hi Matt,
Sure, he’s not in a rush.
Could you give me your email address so that I can send you the survey?
You can email me directly at: my4mac@yahoo.com
Thanks
Maik
You can read more about the North Korean currency shift here:
http://globalpapersecurity.com/north-korea-changes-currency-and-rates-100-to-1.htm