SEOUL: Police said yesterday that four South Koreans were arrested here for trying to sell forged $100 bills, reportedly of a type Washington says North Korea is busily counterfeiting.
Police said the men were arrested at Seoul’s biggest open-air market in April last year with 1,400 of the forged US bills.
Chosun Ilbo, the largest circulation daily in South Korea, said they had bought the bills from a broker in Shenyang, a northeastern Chinese city close to the border with North Korea.
Washington has accused Pyongyang of counterfeiting US bills and launched a crackdown against illicit North Korean activities.
But South Korea, which launched a policy of reconciliation with the North in 1998, says it is unaware of North Korean counterfeiting. US authorities, asked to examine the bills, said they believed they were so-called “supernotes”, high-quality $100 bills forged in North Korea, the Chosun said.
An official handling the case at the National Police Agency said that four South Koreans had been indicted — one for smuggling in the fake US notes and the others for helping trade the bogus bills.
“We have yet to find out where the US bills were counterfeited,” the official said, adding that Seoul was asking Beijing to help verify their origin.
Officials at the foreign ministry and the US embassy in Seoul refused to comment. The US launched its crackdown on alleged North Korean illegal financial activities last year.
In September the US Treasury halted all dealings with a Macau-based bank accused of acting as a willing front for North Korean money laundering. It also blacklisted eight North Korean companies in connection with the bank.
The US believes the bank helped North Korea launder earnings from counterfeiting US bank notes, trafficking illicit narcotics, smuggling contraband cigarettes and other illegal enterprises.
Pyongyang has denied the charges and said it was ready to join an international fight against money laundering.–AFP |
