Why North Koreans love the US dollar

Of course, no one hates money. But with North Koreans, there is an attitude to money that is rather unusual.
Despite being steeped in intense anti-American propaganda, North Koreans love the dollar more than any other people. This love isn’t limited to ordinary folk. It runs just as deep within the government.
What is the explanation for this contradiction? Let’s take a look at the hidden motives behind it.
The love affair with the dollar began in earnest after November 2009. People occasionally used dollars before that, but it was not widespread. Everything began to change drastically after the currency reform that year.
Following the reform, the price of rice skyrocketed from 25 won to 5,000 won in under three years. There was a 200-fold increase in prices. People experiencing this hyperinflation for the first time were thrown into confusion, not knowing what to do.
Why did this happen? There wasn’t a single person who could answer that question.
People knew they had to take some kind of action to cope with the rapidly rising prices day after day. But they were helpless. They simply had no means to resist.
There are no such things as corporate bonds or stocks in the country. If they had instruments like that, they might’ve been able to hedge against inflation because the value of such assets rises along with inflation.
To explain this, we have to remind ourselves of the ideology the regime promotes. The state owns the means of production that can generate capital, supposedly making all people equal. But equality, in this case, is just another way of saying they’re making everyone equally poor.
The people had no choice but to endure the full force of hyperinflation. Such a situation makes us truly understand just how powerless citizens are.
And yet, even amid the chaos, there was always one phrase the regime proudly declared. “We are a tax-free country.”
This does not seem to be what a government that has caused hyperinflation should be saying. Inflation is what happens when the government prints money, devaluing the purchasing power of what people already have. In other words, inflation is a hidden tax that people pay to the state.
Thus, North Koreans paid thousands of percent in taxes over a few years. Yet the government, which can take away not just people’s earnings but nearly all their money at will, still went around bragging about being tax-free. This was laughable.
In times of such chaos, it’s always those who live hand to mouth that get hit the hardest. The old lady in my neighborhood who sells bean sprouts was no exception. When she tried to buy beans with the money she earned from selling sprouts, prices had risen so fast that even with added profit, she didn’t have enough. The rate of inflation was higher than her profit margins.
That was when people started turning their eyes to the dollar. When she sold goods in dollars, the exchange rate would rise along with inflation, so there was no loss. Even the old lady selling sprouts understood this fact. From that moment on, her love for the dollar began.
Before you can even get your money out, she now says, “Dollars, please.”
When even someone selling bean sprouts prefers dollars, what more can be said?
After the currency reform, the dollar, which had been 4,000 won, shot up to 800,000. So if you had dollars, you could withstand that 200-fold increase in prices. People didn’t know what inflation was, or why it happened, but they knew the fact that as long as they had dollars, everything would be okay.
Of course, the dollar can also lose value. But one thing seems certain, it is that no matter how recklessly the U.S. runs its fiscal policy, it’s still safer than North Korea.
That is why the dollar is now the most trusted currency as far as North Koreans are concerned.
In the past, it used to be viewed differently. In movies, spies were always shown carrying suitcases full of dollars, creating the image it was unholy money used by evil people.
This was one of the government’s anti-American propaganda tactics. But now, such tactics no longer work.
Do you know how we used to describe the kids from rich families when I was in college? We said they were the “kind of people who pull out Franklins like the Japanese police used to pull out their swords.” (We used this word, not knowing that in America, a $100 dollar bill was called a “Benjamin”).
Now, the dollar has firmly established itself as a status symbol, a luxury item.
Of course, there were those who doubted the dollar’s value during the currency reform. Some folks with rabbit hearts gave in to the regime’s instructions to surrender dollars, and handed over what they had. But those people later beat their chests in regret, realizing how incredibly foolish they had been when the regime later rescinded its dollar crackdown.
On the flip side, those who held onto their dollars despite state pressure were handsomely rewarded. It was the first time anyone had scored a victory over the regime.
To be precise, it was a victory of the dollar over the regime. Faith in the dollar was proven through a brutal power struggle with the merciless North Korean state.
That’s why people now vow never to repeat the mistake of giving up the dollar, no matter what happens.
Honestly, who knows when the government might launch another currency reform? And who can guarantee that prices won’t spike twentyfold overnight afterward?
Now, even North Koreans now know the truth. As long as America doesn’t collapse, the dollar won’t disappear. And America will outlast the North Korean regime.
For North Koreans, the dollar is the one and only way to protect their wealth. So how could they not love it?
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