by Agencies in Seoul
SCMP, photo page A1, December 4, 2009
Understand the headline
- the won is North Korea's national currency -
- a swap is a financial term used when one stream of cash flow is exchanged against another stream -
- to spark panic means to cause fear -
2. North Korean authorities have threatened merciless punishment
- fierce, pitiless, severe, harsh -
... for citizens defying new currency rules
- resisting -
... that have reportedly wiped out their savings
- destroyed -
3. The regime informed citizens [...] that it would redenominate its national currency
- change the value of -
4. The news sent residents [...] to the black market
- an illegal market in which currencies are bought and sold in violation of rationing or controls; the black market often sets a price for foreign exchange that is several times the official one. ...
-
... to convert hoarded bills into US dollars and yuan
- secret / hidden supplies of -
5. The overhaul of the won,
- reevaluation -
... the most drastic in 50 years,
- extreme -
... appears aimed at curbing runaway inflation
- the spiralling prices of goods and services -
... and clamping down on the street markets
- crackdown -
... that have sprung up in the tightly controlled nation
- appeared suddenly -
6. the move had a broader goal: to pave the way for Kim Jong-li...
- prepare the way and make things easier -