North Korea executes official for blunder

A failed attempt to Fix the economy resulted in this mans execution , and he was just doing what he was told to do !


(Reuters) - North Korea has executed a ruling party official blamed for a botched currency reform, in a desperate attempt to quell public unrest and stem negative impact on Pyongyang's power succession, a news report said on Thursday.

The execution by firing squad in Pyongyang last week of Pak Nam-ki, Labour Party chief for planned economy, was for the crime of "a son of a bourgeois conspiring to infiltrate the ranks of revolutionaries to destroy the national economy," South Korea's Yonhap news agency said, quoting sources.

But both North Korean officials and even many in the communist country's public do not believe the explanation that Pak was a conspiring anti-revolutionary, Yonhap quoted sources knowledgeable about the issue as saying.

"The mood is the leadership has made Pak Nam-ki a scapegoat," one source was quoted as saying.

The unrest, triggered by sharp price increases in the marketplace amid confusion caused by the late November currency revaluation, forced the North to take some steps to roll back its effect.

Analysts said that showed the North was under intense pressure to relieve problems that could upset the stability of the leadership.

We can only hope this stirs things up a bit !