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Currency changes leave North Korea in disarray

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SEOUL, South Korea — Recent changes to the North Korean currency have set off runaway inflation, officials and news reports in Seoul said Wednesday, as a South Korean newspaper reported that the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, had fired the country’s top monetary official amid rising public discontent.

Mr. Kim dismissed Pak Nam-gi, chief of the finance and planning department of the ruling Workers’ Party of North Korea, effectively blaming him for skyrocketing food prices that have severely curtailed already-meager food supplies in the North, according to the Chosun Ilbo, a mass-circulation daily newspaper in Seoul.

Full story: Turmoil Reported in N. Korea After Currency Changes via NYTimes.com