Pak Nam-gi

Pak Nam-gi
Chosŏn'gŭl 박남기
Hancha 朴南基
Revised Romanization Bak Namgi
McCune–Reischauer Pak Namgi
This is a Korean name; the family name is Pak.

Pak Nam-gi or Park Nam-ki (21 February 1934 – 17 March 2010) was, until as late as January 2010,[1] Director of the Planning and Finance Department of the ruling party of North Korea. There are doubts about his date of birth, with at least two unattributed sources[2][3] reporting it as 21 February 1934 or sometime in 1928 respectively.

In March 2010, it was reported by news agencies including Yonhap,[4] Bloomberg,[5] and The Guardian[6] that Pak had been tried and then executed by firing squad in Pyongyang for the offense of being "a son of a bourgeois conspiring to infiltrate the ranks of revolutionaries to destroy the national economy". According to the Guardian, he had been denounced as a traitor during a meeting in January 2010 and arrested on the spot. This related to the devaluation of the North Korean won in November 2009, which led to a crisis after rendering valueless many people's savings.[7][8]

Although John Park, a Stanton junior faculty fellow at MIT, claimed in 2012 that Pak Nam-gi is still alive and had resurfaced after his alleged execution,[9] Ri Je-gang, the former First Deputy Head of the WPK Organization and Guidance Department, says Pak Nam-gi was executed by firing squad in the course of a reactionary purge in 2010.[10]

In December 2013 when Jang Sung-taek, uncle of supreme leader Kim Jong-un, was executed, amongst the charges against Jang was that Jang had been the "wirepuller behind the scene" of "Pak Nam Gi, traitor for all ages".[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Park Nam Ki Arrested for Currency Debacle: sources". Daily NK. 17 March 2010. Retrieved 20 March 2010.
  2. ↑ "(Japanese language source)". Archived from the original on September 28, 2008. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
  3. ↑ "Who Hangs With Kim Jong-il". Retrieved 20 March 2010.
  4. ↑ "N. Korean technocrat executed for bungled currency reform: sources". Yonhap News. March 18, 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-18.
  5. ↑ "Kim Jong-il 'Suffers Depression'". Chosun Ilbo, English edition. 3 March 2010. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
  6. ↑ Branigan, Tania (18 March 2010). "North Korean finance chief executed for botched currency reform". London: The Guardian.
  7. ↑ McNeill, David (3 December 2009). "North Koreans dare to protest as devaluation wipes out savings". London: The Independent.
  8. ↑ "North Korean official Pak Nam-ki executed for disastrous currency reform". London: Times Online. 18 March 2010. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
  9. ↑ "Death by firing squad in North Korea?". Foreign Policy. 24 December 2012.
  10. ↑ "Secret Report Throws Light on N.Korean Purges". Nov 27, 2012. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  11. ↑ Alastair Gale (12 December 2013), What North Korea Said About Jang Song Thaek The Wall Street Journal


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 30, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.