“Reports are emerging of growing dissent in North Korea after the communist regime revalued the currency, wiping out many people’s savings.One South Korean report says graffiti and leaflets criticising the dictator Kim Jong-il have surfaced”

“Reports are emerging of growing dissent in North Korea after the communist regime revalued the currency, wiping out many people’s savings.One South Korean report says graffiti and leaflets criticising the dictator Kim Jong-il have surfaced

North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy reports.

MARK WILLACY: Imagine a world in which a visit by Kevin Rudd to a pickle factory
warranted half an hour on the nightly TV news.

Unthinkable in Australia but in North Korea a story about Kim Jong-il touring a
pickle plant ran for 30 mind-numbing minutes.

(Excerpt from North Korean television news program)

It’s not news, just Pyongyang’s version of Orwell’s 1984.

Of course there was no mention of the real story and that’s the growing disquiet
in the Stalinist state over the regime’s revaluation of the North Korean won.

(Excerpt from North Korean television news program)

The move by Pyongyang to knock a couple of zeroes off its currency is big news
in Japan and South Korea.

Both countries are watching to see if the revaluation will trigger unrest in the
totalitarian state – all because the Communist regime limited how much old
currency could be exchanged for new notes, effectively wiping out the savings of
many North Koreans.

It appears that the aim of the revaluation was to clamp down on the fledgling
free-market economy and to tighten the regime’s grip.

But overnight reports have emerged suggesting the unthinkable, that graffiti and
leaflets criticising Kim Jong-il have appeared in North Korea and according to
South Korean media reports the regime has been spooked by this open slandering
of the dear leader.

Fearing possible mass defections by angry citizens, it’s ordered North Korean
troops to shoot to kill anyone trying to escape across the border into China.

(Excerpt from North Korean television news program)

Back on North Korea’s only nightly news bulletin, viewers were still learning
the ins and outs of Kim Jong-il’s policy on pickles.

(Excerpt from North Korean television news program)

“Comrade Kim is determined to supply good food products to the people”, says the
reporter. “Kim says a supply of nutritious pickles to the people of the North is
essential,” he chants.

After having their hard earned savings wiped out, pickles may be all the people
of the North can afford”

 [ABC "AM", Tues Dec 8]

 http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2009/s2764669.htm

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