[USFK Forums] U.S. says showed S. Korea fake notes made in North [Reuters]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Wednesday, February 22, 2006

U.S. says showed S.Korea fake notes made in North

22 Feb 2006 10:17:06 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Jon Herskovitz and Jack Kim

SEOUL, Feb 22 (Reuters) - The United States has provided South Korea with evidence that North Korea has been producing high-quality counterfeit U.S. $100 notes, an American embassy official in Seoul said on Wednesday.

U.S. Treasury officials recently visited South Korea to pass on information on U.S. suspicions of counterfeiting by North Korea. Seoul has yet to comment publicly on whether it believes the U.S. charges about the so-called "supernotes."

A Washington crackdown on firms it suspects of helping North Korea in illicit activity such as counterfeiting and money laundering has drawn a furious reaction from Pyongyang. It is refusing to resume six-party talks on its nuclear programmes unless the Americans end what it calls financial sanctions.

"The U.S. government has shared with ROK officials specimens of superior-quality counterfeit 2001 and 2003 series $100 notes (supernotes) that our investigations have concluded were manufactured in the DPRK," an embassy spokesman said.

ROK is short for South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The embassy spokesman said U.S. officials had determined that at least $140,000 worth of counterfeit notes seized by South Korean police in April 2005 were supernotes produced in 2001, which were manufactured and distributed by North Korea.

Seoul government officials would not comment on the report.

South Korea officially says it has grave concerns about North Korean illegal activities and believes Pyongyang must act to address the suspicions of the international community.

"We are not sceptical about the suspicion held by the United States," said one South Korean official familiar with the nuclear talks, on the condition of anonymity.

Both Washington and Seoul insist the counterfeiting issue is separate from the nuclear dialogue between the two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia. They have both urged Pyongyang to return to the table.

Pyongyang has said it would be unthinkable for it to resume the nuclear talks at a time when Washington is trying to use financial sanctions to bring down its leadership.

Last week, the U.S. ambassador in Seoul told an Internet news service Washington wants Pyongyang to prove that tools used to counterfeit U.S. currency had been destroyed, so as to help it believe that the North had abandoned some illegal activities.

Pyongyang denies involvement in any illegal activities.

(END)

[Logic ill]

This is great progress. It makes sense that ROK would be sympathetic to DPRK regarding accusations of counterfeiting without evidence provided by the US. Now that it's provided, I'm happy to see the south tilting towards our side again.