North Korea’s failing currency

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The North Korean government recently knocked two zeros off its currency, the won. And it ordered citizens to turn in their old cash savings. The move caused panic and riots, now the North Korean government has apparently fired the official who led the currency revaluation program. Katy Clark talks with Marcus Noland who is an expert on North Korea’s economy at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. Download MP3

• BBC coverage
• Peterson Institute for International Economics

East German guesthouse nostalgia

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The World’s Europe Correspondent, Gerry Hadden, is in Berlin working on stories for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. He spent last night in the Ostel hotel. It’s a hotel refurbished to resemble a guesthouse in 1970s communist East Germany. Gerry gives us a tour. Download MP3 (Photo: Gerry Hadden)

• See photos from Ostel
• The World’s Coverage: First breach in the Iron Curtain