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The portrait of Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea, has been removed from a new banknote, a South Korean news report said on Monday.
The new 5,000-won note, the country’s highest denomination – instead shows Kim’s childhood home, the Chosun Ilbo daily reported.
On the reverse side is a picture of a Pyongyang museum that displays gifts North Korea received from foreign leaders, it said.
The change could represent an effort to reduce the personality cult surrounding Kim Il Sung, clearing the way for his grandson and current leader Kim Jong Un to implement limited economic reforms, the newspaper reported analysts as saying.
The new Bill was not part of currency reform measures, Yonhap News Agency quoted a source saying at the end of July, when news of the banknotes emerged from the secretive state.
The move could however affect the nation’s black market as traders try to use up old notes as quickly as possible, it said.
The 5,000-won note is nominally worth about $50, Chosun Ilbo said, adding that the actual market value is closer to $1.
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