In the 80s, North Korea issued separate types of "foreign exchange certificates" based on whether you were from a socialist or a capitalist country. Andrew Holloway describes the arcane system in "A Year in Pyongyang." Local currency could buy a few simple things. The red won used by visitors from GDR or USSR could buy substantially more, but the blue won from capitalist countries was at a premium and allowed access to the best shops for tourists.
It reflects the awkward North Korean currency paradox: a hatred for the capitalist West but a deep need for Western capital.
It's fascinating and frustrating to me how much more there is to unwind from the Cold War. Lingering soviet satellites like Cuba, North Korea, Belarus, maybe Vietnam... all very different situations, but each has to grapple with its own basket of leftover problems from that era.
Hopefully Cuba will prove that softening relations provides a way out of some of these dilemmas.
But you're right, I don't think it's completely far fetched.
On the other hand Bretton Woods probably wouldn't have had the same effect with just any global currency, the US did have a few perks (intact infrastructure, great mix of labor and capital, rising consumer class, demographic dividend, etc.)
In the 80s, North Korea issued separate types of "foreign exchange certificates" based on whether you were from a socialist or a capitalist country. Andrew Holloway describes the arcane system in "A Year in Pyongyang." Local currency could buy a few simple things. The red won used by visitors from GDR or USSR could buy substantially more, but the blue won from capitalist countries was at a premium and allowed access to the best shops for tourists.
It reflects the awkward North Korean currency paradox: a hatred for the capitalist West but a deep need for Western capital.
It's fascinating and frustrating to me how much more there is to unwind from the Cold War. Lingering soviet satellites like Cuba, North Korea, Belarus, maybe Vietnam... all very different situations, but each has to grapple with its own basket of leftover problems from that era.
Hopefully Cuba will prove that softening relations provides a way out of some of these dilemmas.