Donju and ordinary people impacted by recent ban on mobile money
With the North Korean authorities suddenly banning the sale of mobile phone minutes (mobile money), not only donju (North Korea’s wealthy entrepreneurial class) but even ordinary people have suffered serious financial losses.
“You couldn’t top off your mobile phone minutes from the afternoon of the day they handed down the order banning the sale of mobile money,” a source in North Korea told the Daily NK on Oct. 21. “People who bought mobile phone cards and were unaware of the news suffered losses.”
People who converted their mobile money into minutes by the morning of the day of the order suffered no serious losses, but it was a different story from the afternoon as one could no longer top up his or her phone.
Previously, Daily NK reported that donju had suffered major losses after the North Korean authorities banned the sale of mobile money, ostensibly to eradicate “private commerce.” ......
[Source: Daily NK]
