A sharp decline in the value of the North Korean won, along with a rapid increase in fuel prices, has increased speculation about what’s driving changes in the DPRK economy, from souring relations with China to the state’s campaigns against forex traders.

But another potential cause is a reported meteoric rise in North Korean wages, a development that, if true, would dramatically reshape the country’s economy by pushing up domestic demand.

Reports citing anonymous sources claim that the DRPK government started increasing the wages paid to workers by tenfold or even more