This is Bill Tsutsui with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

There’s marital duplicity going on here in South Korea. Namely, secret bank accounts. Put together by women. Unbeknownst to their husbands. Apparently, more than 65% of married Korean women are salting away money that they save from, among other sources, household accounts. Some of these bank accounts have as much as Won 50 million in them. That’s roughly 50,000 dollars. The women say they keep their cash stash for a number of reasons: peace of mind, their own interests, so they can give money to their folks if they want and other unspecified contingencies. What’s more, 63% of the women say they don’t plan to tell their husbands about their private slush funds ever. And they say North Korea is the most secretive society in the world today.

With thanks to Randi Hacker for this text, from the KU Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Bill Tsutsui. Wish you were here.