North Korea sacked its prime minister last month because he suggested an incentive-based wage system for workers in the communist regime, a proposal that was deemed too similar to US-style capitalism, a news report said yesterday.
The North's Korean Central News Agency said in April that former prime minister Pak Pong-ju was replaced by transport minister Kim Yong-il, without giving any reasons for the change.
The position of premier carries little real power in a country ruled with an iron fist by Kim Jong-il.
A report carried yesterday by a Japanese daily said Pak was dismissed over a proposal he made at a Cabinet meeting in January that an incentive-based wage system be introduced to boost worker morale.
The plan involved paying workers by the hour instead of a set monthly salary, the Mainichi Shimbun said, citing officials in Beijing close to the regime.
Senior Communist party officials blasted Pak's proposal as too expensive and too similar to US-style capitalism.
The incident dented Pak's authority, who himself "appeared to have lost his motivation to stay on as prime minister," the paper quoted the officials as saying.
North Korea is one of the poorest countries in the world, because of poor harvests caused by mismanagement and natural disasters.
Meanwhile, a prolonged banking row that has delayed completion of a deal to disarm North Korea's nuclear capability could be resolved within days, a leading Japanese politician said in a TV interview yesterday.
Taku Yamasaki, a former vice-president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party who met with a Pyongyang official in Beijing two weeks ago, said the banking dispute "is likely to be resolved this week."
Yamasaki said the official who he contacted "is a major member of the [North Korean] team" participating in the six-party talks.
North Korea "will shut down its nuclear [facility] and will accept inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency if the bank row is resolved, this person said," Yamasaki said.
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