Treasury secretaries and finance ministers around the world ought to thank their lucky stars they didn’t have to defend their handling of the global financial crisis to someone like, say, Kim Jong-il.
Consider the following report by the New York Times on Thursday:
North Korea has arrested and possibly executed its top financial official as it struggles to contain chaos set off by its botched attempt to halt inflation through a radical currency revaluation, according to news reports Thursday in South Korea.
The fate of the official, Pak Nam-gi, the ruling Workers’ Party’s finance and planning department chief, who is said to have spearheaded the currency reform, became a focal point of speculation when he did not appear at any official functions reported in the North Korean news media for the past two months.
The botched currency regulation attempt in North Korea reportedly sparked food shortages and rare displays of public discontent.
Hungry men are angry men, after all.
Still, the NY Times also stressed that it has been “nearly impossible” to verify whether Mr Pak is actually dead.
Moreover:
Mr. Kim often keeps personnel reshuffles secret, and party officials who have disappeared from official functions and been reported to be dead in the South Korean news media have often resurfaced years later in new jobs.
“It’s unusual that Mr. Pak has not been seen in public for two months, and there is speculation about his fate,” said Lee Jong-joo, a spokeswoman at the Unification Ministry in Seoul. “But we don’t have any information about whether he was sacked, arrested or executed by firing squad.”
And Tim Geithner thought he was having a bad time of it.
Related links:
North Korea draws on tobacco for cash – FT
Chinese execute two in tainted milk case – FT
Rash of sackings shows it is tougher at the top under Medvedev – FT