The DPRK authorities began to prohibit the use of foreign currency in settlements. This was announced on December 28 by ABC TV channel.
According to him, North Korea has almost completely isolated itself from its most important trading partner – China, trying to prevent an outbreak of coronavirus. As a result, there was a sharp rise in the price of food in the DPRK.
According to analysts, Pyongyang is deliberately raising the value of its own currency, the won, to avoid a sharp rise in inflation. Several currency traders who exchanged won for American dollars were arrested.
South Korean intelligence has reported the execution of at least one trader.
As previously reported in December, the DPRK, according to local authorities, remains one of those rare states that the coronavirus has bypassed. However, many outside observers find it hard to believe in this, as the head of the South Korean Foreign Ministry said the other day.
Pyongyang reacted to this with a promise that a diplomat who dared to doubt would “pay dearly” for such insinuations. At the same time, the DPRK authorities have recently even introduced “ultra-special anti-epidemic measures.”