According to a Daily NK report, approximately two months prior to the purge of Jang Sung Taek, the North Korean authorities halted exports of gold ore from mines in Hwanghae Province in the southwest of the country. Allegedly, this move followed the discovery of misconduct within the mining operations managed by people associated with Jang. Evidently, Jang had not been passing the profits of gold mining enterprises to the State in the prescribed manner. A Daily NK source revealed that the order to halt exports was given in October as an attempt by authorities to reinforce their control over foreign-currency earning enterprises’ resources and bring them together under the management of Kim Jong Eun. Prohibiting all gold ore from exiting North Korea is causing serious problems for the region’s miners, many of whom rely on income from the mines to survive.