The North Korean won

Who issues the won

The central bank answers to the Cabinet and produces both notes and coins. Its founding date depends on what counts. A central bank built from the branches of the Bank of Chōsen opened on 9 January 1946 under Soviet control, and on 29 October 1946 fifty-eight local banks were merged into it and control passed to the North Korean finance ministry. Wikipedia's article on the bank and Koryo Tours' history of the currency both give 6 December 1947 as the start of the won. In 1959 the Farmers' Bank was folded in and a Foreign Trade Bank took over the international business. The central bank also runs an electronic cash card called Chŏnsŏng.

What the won replaced

For two years after the division the north kept using the Korean yen. A Soviet-backed provisional government north of the 38th parallel issued notes of 1, 5, 10 and 100 won in 1945, and they were soon discontinued. The first won of 1947 existed only as paper. Its notes ran from 15 chon to 100 won, and the won notes showed a farmer and a worker standing together with their tools.

A second won followed in February 1959, worth 100 of the old, to curb inflation left by the Korean War. Wikipedia dates a fixed rate of ₩2.16 to the US dollar from 1978 and Koryo Tours from the won's founding, and both agree the rate was dropped in 2001.

What happened when the won was revalued

The third won came in a revaluation announced on 30 November 2009. People were given a week to exchange old notes at 100 to one, up to ₩100,000, a limit later raised to ₩150,000 in cash and ₩300,000 in savings. The Peterson Institute for International Economics describes the reform as confiscatory and aimed at private markets; South Korean analysts quoted by the Guardian said it was meant to curb inflation and the street markets. North Korea denied any serious crisis.

The old notes stopped being legal tender on 30 November, and the new ones were not handed out until 7 December. For a week no won could buy anything. According to Wikipedia most shops, restaurants and transport services closed for that week. The government later backed away, raising wages and, in February 2010, easing some of the curbs on markets.

Why foreign money circulates beside it

The won was meant for North Korean citizens alone. Visitors used foreign exchange certificates issued by the Bank of Trade, in a red series for guests from socialist countries and a blue-green series for guests from capitalist ones, and the certificates fell out of use in 1999 and were abolished in 2002, after which visitors paid in hard currency.

After 2009 the BBC reported department stores in Pyongyang that took only yen and dollars. By 2018 most stores accepted dollars, euros and Chinese yuan. Change came back in yuan or dollars. Wikipedia describes two wons as a result: a tied won held on debit cards at the official bank rate, and the untied won of the ordinary notes, traded at the market rate.

What the notes and coins show

The third won runs in notes of 5, 10, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000 won. Kim Il Sung appears only on the 5,000. The 100 won carries the magnolia, the national flower, and the rest show workers, soldiers and monuments. Some of these notes were printed as early as 2002 and held back, a sign that a revaluation had been planned years earlier.

Coins, all aluminium, were struck in 2002 and 2008 and released in December 2009, from 1 chon to 1 won. Higher coins of 50 to 2,000 won were minted in 2022. When paper and ink ran short in the second half of 2021, the bank issued emergency coupons called donpyo, money coupons, in 5,000 and 50,000 won.