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In an article published on its website on Wednesday, Foreign Policy, an American magazine on international relations, called the North Korean won one of the world's "worst currencies."
The official exchange rate for North Korea's won is 141 KPW per one U.S. dollar, but on the black market it's traded at more than 2,500 won per dollar.
Nobody knows exactly how much inflation has affected the currency, because most commodities prices are set by the North Korean government. North Korea's official exchange rate bears no relationship to any underlying economic reality, Foreign Policy wrote.
Commodities prices skyrocketed beginning in 2002 as the government began experimenting with market reforms, the magazine said, with the price of rice rising by 550 percent.
Alongside the North Korean won, the magazine listed Somalia's shilling (SOS), Venezuela's bolívar (VEB), Iraq's new dinar (NID), and Zimbabwe's dollar (ZWD) as the world's worst currencies.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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