Good News From Korea?

The North Korean government is exchanging its old currency out. It's not good news for North Koreans' savings, but it might have some good aspects:

I think the main effect will be to see the Yuan adopted as the measure of exchange in private, unofficial and grey markets, thus inserting the North into China’s economy. It may even have been partly intended to do this. Via.

The government of the Republic of Korea (the South) officially came out this week in favor of turning the Demilitarized Zone that separates its territory from that of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (the North) into an ecological preservation zone. They hope to have a proposal ready for the North by late 2010. Via.