Winter is typically a volatile time in North Korea, which struggles with chronic food shortages. What makes this year especially concerning, say analysts who follow North Korea, is the country’s closure of its borders since early 2020, even with critical trading partner China.
Another bad harvest in hungry North Korea underscores root cause of food crisis rfa.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rfa.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
In normal economies, currencies weaken in times of difficulty, but something counter-intuitive is happening in North Korea: the won is surging just as things are getting worse.
The North Korean won has jumped 25% against the dollar this year, calculated on a monthly average basis using the numbers reported by the two media organizations that track it.