Show me where the “official” govt-set conversion rate of North Korean money is reflected at that same rate on the free market.
It’s not. When you fly to Cuba or N.K. you have to buy their money at their rate, which is wildly different from the free-market rates in S.K. or Miami.
The South Korean Won, like the Brazilian Real, Indian Rupee and Chinese Renminbi; all fall into the so-called non-convertible status, in that they are not traded on the main FOREX exchanges. There is still a. high volume of conversions taking place on trade transactions, as with the ruble, for oil and gas purchases.
The official exchange rate for the ruble is no longer what people pay to buy and sell rubles, the actual free market (street) rate to sell rubles and buy dollars, euro or yen; has increasingly diverged from the official exchange rate since the war started.
And you ain’t seen nothing yet. The way that they have been printing rubles, the way that foreign denominated imported goods (everything nice in Russia) are drying up, the way that talent and capital are fleeing Russia, and the way that gas sales have plummeted, and oil sales seem likely to; the real exchange rate for rubles will almost certainly continue to deteriorate.
In the 1980s, the Soviet Union touted their (official) currency exchange rate as proof of their economic strength against the West. This is the same old propaganda playbook being used, as their economy and finances circle the drain.