North Korea Orders Purge

North Korea Orders Purge

www.rfa.org

SEOUL—North Korean authorities have ordered a wholesale purge of photos of and writings by or about three senior officials who are believed to have been executed, including the architect of the country’s recent botched currency reform, North Korean sources say.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Down the old memory hole...a bit of cold-war-style double doublethink from Pyongyang. Doctoring actual non-digital photos and burining paper documents seems so quaint somehow, doesn't it?

It's interesting that the targets of the purge are associated with the currency "reform" last year, which all but wiped out the under-the-mattress cash savings of millions of thrifty peasants. This was perhaps the single most destabilizing internal move the North Korean gov't has made in living memory. There were riots and serious civil unrest, and for the first time ever the government became seriously scared of a population whose docility it had too long taken for granted.

Scapegoats were found and executed, but of course when you are running on Stalinist fumes its never over until the scapegoats become un-persons, is it?



www.rfa.org
(visit the link for the full news article)