Pak Nam-gi

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.

Pak Nam-gi
Korean name
Chosŏn'gŭl
박남기
Hancha
Revised RomanizationBak Namgi
McCune–ReischauerPak Namgi
In this Korean name, the family name is Pak.

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". The Guardian. London.
  7. McNeill, David (3 December 2009). "North Koreans dare to protest as devaluation wipes out savings". The Independent. London.
  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


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