Loren Gatch writes:

North Korea has executed a senior official blamed for currency reforms that damaged the already ailing economy and potentially affected the succession, a news agency in South Korea reported today.

Pak Nam-gi was killed by firing squad last week, said Yonhap, citing multiple sources. The Workers party chief for planning and the economy had not been seen in public since January.

The 77-year-old was put to death as "a son of a bourgeois conspiring to infiltrate the ranks of revolutionaries to destroy the national economy", the agency said.

But it reported that many North Koreans did not believe the explanation, citing one source who said: "The mood is the leadership has made Pak Nam-gi a scapegoat."

The International Crisis Group (ICG) described the currency revaluation as "disastrous" in a report released this week.

The reform appeared to be aimed at reasserting state control over the economy, curbing inflation and tackling corruption.

Although people were allowed to exchange currency � at a rate of 100 to one � only a small amount could be changed. That wiped out the savings of slightly better off North Koreans who had managed to put aside money through trading.

Food prices soared as uncertainty over contradictory policies led to hoarding, the ICG said. By mid-January there were reports of rising deaths from starvation, thought to have prompted the release of emergency food supplies.

To read the complete article, see:North Korean finance chief executed for botched currency reform(www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/18/north-korean-executed-currency-reform)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:ANGRY NORTH KOREANS BURN BANKNOTES IN PROTEST(www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v12n49a16.html)