2006

• January

2005

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• January

• Sean Garland

• U.S. in Sweeping Plan to Strangle North Korea's Cash Flow
  January 28, 2006 Chosun Ilbo (Seoul)
  The U.S. is readying fresh sanctions against North Korea over the regime's alleged financial crimes that will be significantly more severe than the ones already in place. Raphael Perl, a congressional researcher in charge of tracking Pyongyang's drug dealings and counterfeiting, said Friday authorities completed a rough draft of an executive order that would stop any financial firms involved in transactions with North Korea from conducting business in the U.S. That will mean all banks, brokerage houses and insurance firms and refers not only to illegal transactions but to any financial deals with the North, Perl told the Chosun Ilbo on the phone. Once the regulations are finalized, "the message to financial institutions operating in the U.S. will be that the time has come for them to choose between the U.S. or North Korea," he added. Observers will be watching closely if the draft takes effect since it is far more sweeping than the sanctions already in place. The U.S. in September pinpointed the Macau-based Banco Delta Asia as Pyongyang's primary money laundering channel and induced China to close North Korea's transaction account there, while a presidential decree froze the U.S. assets of 11 North Korean trading firms. In December, Washington issued an advisory warning North Korea would probably seek to take advantage of other foreign banks for its illegal transactions. But under the draft order, almost all finance companies would be effectively prohibited from doing business with North Korea. That would also affect international financial institutions outside the U.S. and thus deal a heavy blow to North Korea's overseas trade. In Perl's reading, financial institutions would have a choice whether they are with or against the U.S., but given the importance of their U.S. interests, it would in effect force most major international firms to stop dealing with the North. Given that Pyongyang is already boycotting six-party talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear program over the earlier measures, the plan could be the death knell for the negotiations. The news comes in a week when President Roh Moo-hyun warned of friction between Seoul and Washington if the U.S. tries to solve the North Korea problem by strangling the regime, and is unlikely to improve strained relations between the two allies. It is not wholly unexpected, however, since the White House has several times warned of possible "additional measures" against the North. [Sanctions] [Counterfeiting] [Drugs]
• New Obstacle to Nuclear Talks
  Inter-Korean Relations Likely to Face Serious Setback
  The stalemate in the six-party nuclear negotiations is confounded further by Seoul's consenting to Washington's call to join its global efforts to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). With an agreement reached late last month, the nation is to partially join the U.S.-led multilateral campaign - the Proliferation of Security Initiative (PSI) - aimed at blocking the transfer of WMD by "rogue" countries such as North Korea and Iran. In particular, the inclusion of drills for intercepting suspected WMD shipments in annual South Korea-U.S. military exercises is certain to provoke the North and strengthen its resolve to boycott the negotiations, suspended since last November. What worries Seoul most is that this would seriously impair inter-Korean relations. Despite the foreseeable setback to the talks and inter-Korean cooperation, and given that some 70 countries are full PSI members, the nation has no choice but to partially join the campaign.
  To make matters worse, the U.S. Embassy in Seoul called upon the Korean government on Tuesday to join in Washinton's financial strictures against Pyongyang. Fearing such a concession would lead to not just the collapse of the six-party negotiations but also the disruption of inter-Korean exchanges, the latest U.S. demand is hard for Seoul to accept. Besides, Seoul doesn't fully agree with the U.S. financial sanctions because there is no apparent evidence of the North's illicit activities. [Evidence] [Camouflage] [PSI] [US dominance] [Friction]
• Bush tells North to stop printing $100 bills
  January 28, 2006 ? At his first press conference of the year, U.S. President George W. Bush called on North Korea to stop counterfeiting U.S. currency and return to nuclear disarmament negotiations. "Well, if somebody is cheating on us, we need to stop it," said the president, referring to charges that Pyongyang is behind the high-quality $100 "supernotes." "We are going to uphold the law and protect the currency of the American people," he said. Although Mr. Bush said there could be "no compromise" on the matter, he added, "We think it's very important for the North Koreans to come back to the table. We're more than willing to, and want the six-party talks to continue forward."
  The six countries involved in the talks have been trying to find a way to remove the counterfeiting issue as an impediment to the talks, but an incident earlier this week showed that it has tested tempers in Seoul as well. The U.S. Embassy and the Foreign Ministry exchanged dueling statements about what, if anything, Washington had asked Seoul to do to help stop the counterfeiting.
  But yesterday, Kim Sook, the director-general of the ministry's North American Affairs Bureau, told a radio audience that the incident did not indicate a rift between the two government concerning counterfeiting. He did repeat complaints, however, that the embassy statement contained some "exaggerated expressions" about the course of the two-day meetings. by Brian Lee [Evidence] [Camouflage]
• US Briefs Seoul on NK Counterfeiting
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter
  Daniel Glaser, right, deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes at the U.S. Treasury Department, enters a briefing with Kim Sook, directorgeneral of the North American affairs bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, at the ministry in central Seoul, Monday. / Yonhap
  South Korea Monday described a U.S. briefing on North Korean financial illegalities as ``informative,'' but said it will keep a close eye on the developing situation as the U.S. investigation is not over yet. A delegation from the U.S. Treasury Department briefed South Korean officials on their concerns over the North's alleged counterfeiting of U.S. bills during a working-level meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Seoul. A ministry official, who attended the 90-minute briefing session, indicated that the U.S. officials provided new information regarding Pyongyang's currency counterfeiting and laundering of ``supernotes'' through a bank in Macau. The four-member delegation visited Hong Kong and Macau from Tuesday to Friday before arriving in Seoul on Saturday. ``There was some information we can refer to (regarding the counterfeiting),'' the Seoul official told reporters on condition of anonymity. However, the briefing did not seem to fully convince Seoul, which has been unwilling to accept Washington's sanctions due to concerns the issue could prevent the resumption of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. ``We told them that Seoul has serious concerns about the North's financial illegalities and will continue analyzing and assessing related information,'' he said. ``We also said this briefing will be a reference source down the road.'' The official said it is too early to expect Washington to [Evidence]
• US Briefs Seoul on NK Counterfeiting
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter
  Daniel Glaser, right, deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes at the U.S. Treasury Department, enters a briefing with Kim Sook, directorgeneral of the North American affairs bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, at the ministry in central Seoul, Monday. / Yonhap
  South Korea Monday described a U.S. briefing on North Korean financial illegalities as ``informative,'' but said it will keep a close eye on the developing situation as the U.S. investigation is not over yet. A delegation from the U.S. Treasury Department briefed South Korean officials on their concerns over the North's alleged counterfeiting of U.S. bills during a working-level meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Seoul. A ministry official, who attended the 90-minute briefing session, indicated that the U.S. officials provided new information regarding Pyongyang's currency counterfeiting and laundering of ``supernotes'' through a bank in Macau. The four-member delegation visited Hong Kong and Macau from Tuesday to Friday before arriving in Seoul on Saturday. ``There was some information we can refer to (regarding the counterfeiting),'' the Seoul official told reporters on condition of anonymity. However, the briefing did not seem to fully convince Seoul, which has been unwilling to accept Washington's sanctions due to concerns the issue could prevent the resumption of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. ``We told them that Seoul has serious concerns about the North's financial illegalities and will continue analyzing and assessing related information,'' he said. ``We also said this briefing will be a reference source down the road.'' The official said it is too early to expect Washington to [Evidence]
• U.S., Seoul, differ publicly on action call
  January 26, 2006 ? It did not take long for the Foreign Ministry to object to a statement on Tuesday by the U.S. Embassy saying that a visiting U.S. team had urged Seoul to act to protect itself from North Korean counterfeiting. President Roh Moo-hyun also weighed in on the fray yesterday at his first press conference of the year. Yesterday, the ministry spokesman issued a rebuttal, which took the embassy to task for a statement that "does not reflect accurately the results of the joint consultations." That, the ministry said, was "not appropriate" and complained that Washington was "exaggerating" in its account of the talks. The ministry conceded that the Americans "suggested a need for cooperation in general terms but did not, officially or unofficially, urge our government to take concrete measures." A senior government official said, bluntly but anonymously, that the U.S. press release did not report "adequately and in a balanced way" what had transpired. He said the Foreign Ministry had protested to the embassy and received a response that he said met Seoul's expectations. Citing diplomatic sensitivities, he did not elaborate. Perhaps those expectations were low. Robert Ogburn, the embassy spokesman, said yesterday that the embassy stood by the contents of the press release. Asked if Washington had apologized to Seoul, as some Korean officials had suggested, he said the embassy would "respect the privacy of diplomacy." At yesterday's meeting with the press, President Roh was asked if he believed that North Korea was involved in counterfeiting. In a rambling answer, he began by complaining that "some Americans" were raising issues about North Korea "or pressuring it or sometimes wishing for its collapse." He said firmly, "We do not agree." On the counterfeiting charges specifically, he asked for more time, saying it would be inappropriate for a Korean president to comment now. He called for working-level consultations to reconcile the differences of opinion. A source in Washington described the meetings in Seoul to the JoongAng Ilbo, saying that the U.S. team told its Korean counterparts that in 1996, Pyongyang had imported large quantities of special inks used to print currency notes. They cited that as strong evidence of a link to the counterfeit $100 "supernotes" that soon began appearing. Officials here, he said, pointed out that the North was revising its 500-won note at about that time, but the Americans argued that the move was an attempt to disguise its intentions. Washington has also charged that links between North Korea and the Banco Delta Asia in Macao, which resulted in warnings to the bank by U.S. officials, gave Pyongyang an outlet for its counterfeit currency. Officials here say that an investigation by Chinese officials is still going on. Seoul continues to say publicly that more evidence is needed to prove the link between North Korea and the supernotes. by Brian Lee [Evidence] [Friction]
• Seoul, Washington Clash on NK's Bill Counterfeiting
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Wednesday criticized the U.S. Embassy in Seoul for issuing a press release that it said was ``exaggerating'' what a U.S. delegation recently told South Korean officials about North Korea's financial illegalities. It was considered Seoul's most strongly worded statement targeting its traditional ally to date. The diplomatic conflict began Tuesday when the embassy issued the press release, saying that the U.S. Treasury Department delegation ``urged'' South Korea to take similar steps to Washington's in September by warning its financial sector of illicit financial threats from North Korea. But the ministry said that what it actually heard from the American officials on Monday were plain ``comments,'' underlining the necessity of cooperation to strengthen defenses against money laundering and financial crimes. ``The U.S. statement exaggerated some of the contents that were discussed,'' Choo Kyu-ho, the ministry's spokesman, said in a statement. ``Even though the delegates mentioned the necessity of cooperation to block terrorist financing and financial crimes, they did not urge us either officially or unofficially to take measures in detail.'' Choo also said that it was ``inappropriate'' for the embassy to issue a press release that failed to correctly reflect the results of the South Korea-U.S. consultations. Traditionally the two allies obtained consent of each side before releasing such statements. [Friction] [Evidence]
• Seoul Worried Over NK Counterfeiting
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter
  Daniel Glaser, right, U.S. Treasury Department's deputy assistant secretary who deals with terrorist financing and financial crimes, and other American officials arrive at Incheon International Airport, Saturday, for talks with South Korean officials on North Korea's alleged counterfeiting of U.S. dollars. /Yonhap [photo]
  Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-moon returned to Seoul on Sunday after a six-day visit to the United States, where he said Seoul had delivered its concerns to Pyongyang over the Communist state's alleged counterfeiting of U.S. dollars. But he expressed hope that the on-going controversy over Pyongyang's money laundering and other illicit activities would not block the resumption of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons programs. ``We have conveyed our concerns to North Korean authorities,'' he said in an interview with CNN's Late Edition, which was aired on Sunday. ``At the same time, we hope that this kind of counterfeiting or illicit activities by North Korea will not stand in the way of six-party talks.'' Upon his arrival in Seoul, Ban said that South Korea will discuss with five other countries _ North Korea, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan _ on ways to resume the denuclearization talks in February. North Korea announced its boycott of the talks in November, arguing that Washington's imposition of the financial sanctions was an attempt to ``strangle'' the Pyongyang regime. In a related development, a four-member delegation from the U.S. Treasury Department, which arrived in Seoul on Saturday, will meet Seoul officials on Monday to show evidence of Pyongyang's suspicious financial activities at a bank in Macau. They refused to answer reporters' questions on their arrival in Seoul. On Sept. 20, the U.S. Treasury Department said in the Federal Register, a daily newsletter of the U.S. government, that Banco Delta Asia in Macau provided financial services for over 20 years to multiple North Korean government agencies and front companies that have been engaged in illicit activities. Such evidence allegedly led Washington to designate the bank as the ``primary money laundering concern.'' The bank consequently halted all financial services for North Korea. Daniel Glaser, Treasury Department's deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, and three other American officials visited Hong Kong and Macau before arriving in Seoul. They are scheduled to leave South Korea on Tuesday. Even though Ban shared concerns with Washington over Pyongyang's financial illegalities, the foreign minister, who traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend the inaugural ``strategic consultation'' between South Korea and the U.S. on Thursday, expressed regret over Washington's labeling of Pyongyang as a ``criminal regime.'' [Friction] [Evidence] [Arrogance]
• U.S. delegation to brief Seoul on N.K. financial wrongdoings
  From news reports A U.S. Treasury Department delegation will hold meetings with South Korean officials today to explain Washington's decision to impose sanctions on North Korea over alleged illegal financial activities by the communist country, Seoul officials said.
  The U.S. delegation led by Daniel Glaser, deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing and financial crime, arrived in Seoul on Saturday after visiting Hong Kong and Macau.
  South Korean officials were cautious about the team's trip and declined to disclose details, including its itinerary, apparently because of its sensitive mission.
  "The U.S. team will stay here until Tuesday before flying to Japan," a Foreign Ministry official said, adding that the Americans will meet officials from the Foreign, Unification and Finance Ministries and the National Intelligence Service.
  The team is leading a U.S. investigation into Pyongyang's illicit financial dealings, including counterfeiting of American dollars and cigarettes, drug trafficking and smuggling. [Evidence] [Arrogance]
• US Hardliners Seek NK Demise Through Counterfeiting Probe
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- Some hardliners in the Bush administration are seeking the demise of North Korea with the information they have on the communist state's illicit activities targeting American dollars and products, the National Press Radio (NPR) reported Wednesday. "An investigation by the Bush administration has found that North Korea's government officially sanctions criminal products such as counterfeit American currency, narcotics and counterfeit cigarette brands," the report said. "The administration is divided over how to use this information, whether to pressure North Korean leaders to give up nuclear weapons, or give up power," it said. Years of U.S. investigations, involving 14 federal agencies, have found that the illicit activities are now generating more than half a billion U.S. dollars for Pyongyang, according to NPR. [Camouflage] [Regime change]
• Seoul Should Worry About N. Korean Regime: Vershbow
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter
  South Koreans should ``worry'' about the North Korean regime, which has ``disturbed'' American leaders by inflicting pains on its own people, Alexander Vershbow, U.S. ambassador to South Korea, said. North Korea is expected to churn out strongly worded statements against the top U.S. envoy, who Pyongyang recently described as a ``governor-general'' of South Korea. His remarks were posted late Monday night on ``Cafe USA'' at a portal Web site in response to a South Korean Internet user's question, regarding the diplomat's labeling of North Korea as a ``criminal regime'' in December. ``I think all South Koreans should be worried about a regime that threatens its own people so badly, that wastes its scarce resources on nuclear weapons, and that engages in counterfeiting, drug trafficking, money laundering and the export of dangerous military technologies in order to survive,'' Vershbow said. Pyongyang declared its boycott of the six-party denuclearization talks since the latest round of talks in November, arguing that the U.S. financial sanctions, imposed on the North in September to stop Pyongyang's alleged counterfeiting of U.S. dollars, violated the spirit of the joint principle statement, adopted at the talks in September.
  He did not directly mention Seoul's North Korea policies. But U.S. conservatives have criticized South Korea's low profiling on North Korea's human rights situation and ``excessive'' efforts to engage and economically cooperate with North Korea under the name of the``sunshine'' policy. Vershbow said the United States supports South Korean efforts to improve the lives of North Koreans through inter-Korean engagement projects. But he said that Washington hopes to see these contacts be carried out in a way that encourages North Korean leaders to open up their closed society and to respect the human rights of its people. ``Together with the abandonment of North Korea's nuclear programs, such reforms will help bring North Korea out of its self-imposed isolation and make unification of the Korean nation more likely,'' he said. [Friction] [Victim]
• 'Washington will continue to suppress North Korea'
  By Annie I. Bang
  The United States will continue to suppress North Korea, by taking a hard-line policy against various issues including the North's alleged counterfeiting of U.S. currency and its nuclear program standoff, a Korean public institute said in a report released yesterday. "The Bush administration has recently raised concerns of North Korea's counterfeiting and circulation of the false currency separate from the nuclear issues. And those various pressures against North Korea are not one-off actions but will continue throughout this year," the government-funded Korea Institute for Defense Analyses said in a report. The report was written by Kim Chang-su, researcher for the ROK-U.S. Alliance, U.S. security policies at the institute. "At first, there is a greater possibility for the Bush administration's high-ranking officials not to give up their strong attitudes towards North Korea although Washington has insisted that it would adopt the 'conditional engagement' instead of a hard-line policy," Kim wrote. Since the Bush administration has concerns about North Korea's human rights issues, in relation to both South Korean defectors and the population living in the North, Kim said it will "confidentially" review various ways to reduce the threat from weapons of mass destruction. To scrap North Korea's nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction and promote transparency, the actions of Robert Joseph, senior adviser to U.S. President George W. Bush, are important, Kim said. Joseph is also Secretary of State for Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament. U.S. Ambassador to Korea Alexander Vershbow also alerted South Koreans yesterday that people should be worried over the North's regime, which "is wasting its resources developing nuclear weapons and counterfeit bills, drug-dealing and money-laundering to survive." [US NK policy] [Camouflage] [Spin]
• US to Present Proof of NK Counterfeiting
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter
  U.S. Treasury Department officials will soon visit Seoul to discuss North Korea's alleged counterfeiting of U.S. dollars, Alexander Vershbow, American ambassador to South Korea, said in Seoul on Thursday.
  ``It is not 100 percent firm, but it's going to be probably on Jan. 22,'' he said at a forum hosted by the Korea Human Development Institute. The U.S. top envoy said that the American officials will also visit Macau, where the controversial bank, which Washington accused of ``facilitating'' Pyongyang's money laundering, is located.
  The American team is expected to show Seoul the evidence, which allegedly led Washington to designate Banco Delta Asia, the bank in Macau, as the ``primary money laundering concern.''
  On Sept. 20, the U.S. Treasury Department said in the Federal Register, a daily newsletter of the U.S. government, that the bank in the Chinese territory provided financial services for over 20 years to multiple North Korean government agencies and front companies that have been engaged in illicit activities.
  U.S. officials blacklisted eight North Korean companies the next month in connection with the bank and the spread of weapons of mass destruction. As for the rising concern that U.S. financial sanctions against North Korea are blocking the resumption of the stalled talks on the regime's nuclear ambitions, Christopher Hill, Washington's top envoy to the talks, said in Seoul that it is ``not a six-party-talks matter.'' [Evidence] [Camouflage]
• NK Denies Forging American Dollars
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter
  Pyongyang's Foreign Ministry on Monday dismissed Washington's allegation that North Korea has forged U.S. dollars. It was the first time for Pyongyang to express its position over Washington's financial sanctions through an official channel, and the strongest denial North Korea has ever made since the controversy came to the fore in November. ``Even though we've examined the data, which the United States gave us (as evidence of our financial illegalities), we couldn't find anything that is based on truth,'' the North's Korean Central News Agency quoted an unnamed ministry spokesman as saying. Pyongyang also urged Washington to lift financial sanctions if the United States wants progress in the six-party denuclearization talks, which have been in limbo since the latest round in November.
  The U.S. Treasury Department said in Federal Register, a daily government newsletter, on Sept. 20 that North Korea's earnings from criminal activities such as drug trafficking and counterfeiting of currency could amount to $500 million annually. As for Banco Delta Asia in Macao, the department said it has reasonable grounds to conclude that the bank is a ``financial institution of primary money laundering concern.'' ``Banco Delta Asia has provided financial services for over 20 years to multiple North Korean government agencies and front companies that are engaged in illicit activities, and continues to develop these relationships,'' the department said. [Evidence]
• US Denies Envoy's Planned Gesture to NK
  SEOUL (Yonhap) -- U.S. officials in Seoul denied a report Monday that their top envoy in South Korea is likely to express regret about labeling North Korea as a "criminal regime." Citing an unnamed diplomatic source in Seoul, the Hankyoreh Shinmun, a Seoul-based newspaper, said in its Monday edition that U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow plans to make the gesture this week to create a good atmosphere for stalled six-way talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program. In December, Vershbow branded North Korea as a criminal regime, alleging that the communist country has been engaged in various illegal activities such as counterfeiting of U.S. dollar, narcotics trafficking and trade of weapons of massive destruction. [Vituperation][Friction]
• N.K. calls counterfeiting claim baseless
  North Korea's Foreign Ministry said Monday that evidence supplied by the United States to justify financial sanctions imposed on the Stalinist state had turned out to be "baseless" fiction. The ministry said Pyongyang had scrutinized U.S. evidence to justify the sanctions imposed in retaliation for North Korea's alleged illicit financial activities, including counterfeiting, money-laundering and drug-running. "We examined the information the U.S. side provided to us, claiming that it was the motive for its application of sanctions," a foreign ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). "The things cited in it, however, have never happened in our country." Statements from its Foreign Ministry are generally considered one of the most authoritative forms of communication with the outside world. Washington has rejected a North Korean request for direct talks on the issue, saying the sanctions are not negotiable. "The U.S. has persistently refused to negotiate with the DPRK while floating baseless fictions which nobody believes," the spokesman said. [Evidence]
• Pyongyang Beefs Up Offensive
  Return to Six-Party Talks to Find Solution to Sanctions
  In the midst of the mounting tension between Washington and Pyongyang over the Bush administration's financial sanctions against the Kim Jong-il regime, North Korea is stepping up its attack on the United States, further threatening the six-party nuclear negotiations. The North came up with its strongest invective against Washington on Saturday, singling out the U.S. as its main enemy in its struggle to achieve its national independence and reunification of the Korean Peninsula. In a commentary by its official paper Rodong Sinmun, Pyongyang insisted that the entire Korea stage a vigorous struggle to smash the U.S. imperialist' move to strengthen global domination and block the reunification of the peninsula. The North's bitterest attack on the U.S. is its reaction to Washington's refusal to its call for the lift of the financial strictures in exchange for its return to the six-party negotiations which have been suspended since last November. Upon the order of President George W. Bush, Washington imposed the punitive financial action against Pyongyang in October in its belief that the communist country was engaged in counterfeiting American banknotes and laundering money. However, the sanctions have been even contested by Seoul, visibly straining relations between South Korea and the U.S, with its lowtone complaints that there is no evidence of the North's manufacture of bogus American banknotes. [Evidence] [Collusion] [Friction]
• US Takes Tough Stance Over NK Counterfeiting
  By Reuben Staines Staff Reporter
  U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday labeled North Korea a "dangerous regime" and said Washington will not back down on financial sanctions imposed on Pyongyang for alleged counterfeiting. "Their illegal activities have drawn sanctions from us because the president (George W. Bush) is not going to let North Korea counterfeit American money without action," she told reporters in Washington. International r e l a t i o n s experts in Seoul said Rice's comments underlined a stiffening in the Bush administration's approach to c o m m u n i s t North Korea. U.S. diplomats have adopted a more critical line toward the North since September, when the Treasury Department ordered American financial institutions to cut all ties with the Macao-based bank Banco Delta Asia, accusing it of being a front for a North Korean counterfeiting operation.
  The secretary of state also stressed that the U.S. will not be intimidated by North Korea's nuclear posturing.
  The comments came amid reports that the U.S. Secret Service will dispatch a delegation to South Korea to discuss the alleged North Korean counterfeiting. The delegation will visit Seoul around Jan. 22, Yonhap news agency reported, quoting unidentified sources. Gregory Marchio, a secret service official in Las Vegas, also told Yonhap that counterfeit $100 bills found in casinos there over the past six month were most likely produced by North Korea. "The characteristics are similar to those that are being manufactured in North Korea," he said. Dubbed "supernotes" for their g e n u i n e appearance, two or three of the bills have been detected in the casinos each month, according to the official. [Camouflage] [Evidence]
• U.S. Secret Service to visit Seoul, Rice calls N.K. 'dangerous' regime
  A U.S. Secret Service delegation is planning to visit South Korea as part of an Asian tour to discuss the North Korea counterfeiting issue, sources said yesterday. No specific date has been set, but reports here said the visit will likely take place in the middle of this month. The delegation will also visit Macau and Hong Kong. The issue of North Korea's alleged counterfeiting activity and Washington's financial countermeasures has become a major stumbling block threatening the resumption of six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions. In September last year the U.S. Treasury banned American financial institutions from dealing with a Macau-based bank, accused of allegedly laundering money for Pyongyang and helping circulate counterfeit dollars.
  The ban was part of Washington's fortified actions against "illicit activities" by the Stalinist state which is also accused of drug trafficking and smuggling fake goods.
  The Seoul government has requested Washington to pass on details of its information on North Korea's alleged counterfeiting activities. In related news, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday North Korea may be a "dangerous" regime, but that the United States had a deterrent capability against it. "In terms of danger, of course you know they are a dangerous regime," she told reporters in Washington. "But we should also not misinterpret the security situation on the Korean Peninsula, where there is a significant deterrent toward North Korean activity there." [Evidence] [Threat] [Spin] [Camouflage]
• Tit-for-Tat Bickering Must Stop
  Six-Party Negotiations Ought to Resume Soon
  From the start of the New Year, North Korea and the United States have been engaged in round of useless argument, further compounding progress of the six-party nuclear negotiations. On Tuesday, the White House flatly turned down Pyongyang's call for the lift of financial sanctions against the North as a condition for its return to the six-party talks suspended since last November. The Bush administration criticized Pyongyang for using the financial strictures as an excuse for staying out of the negotiations. Washington's denunciation is a reaction to Pyongyang's threat placed in its official paper Rodong Sinmun a day earlier (Tuesday, Korean time) that it will not return to the negotiating table until the U.S. lifts the punitive financial measures.
  To make matters worse, the Bush administration's claim that the North counterfeited U.S. banknotes has somewhat strained relations between Seoul and Washington because Seoul has maintained that there is no evidence of the North's illegal activities. It is hard to expect that the Bush administration will compromise its stance on the financial sanctions against the Kim Jong-il regime in light of its insistence that the matter is different from the nuclear issue. Even though the U.S. position is understandable, Washington needs to make some concessions to Pyongyang's demand for the sake of the six-party negotiations. [Evidence] [Camouflage] [Friction]
• U.S. officials to brief Seoul on bogus supernotes
  January 06, 2006 ? WASHINGTON/SEOUL ? A team from the U.S. Treasury Department will make a two-day visit to Seoul from Jan. 18 to provide more evidence on North Korean counterfeiting activities, a source in Washington said yesterday. The source said the evidence will be more detailed than that provided to foreign diplomats at a briefing last month by the U.S. state and treasury departments. Before coming to Seoul, the team of four to five officials will visit Macao to discuss with China suspicions that the Bank of China's Macao branch might have dealt with the counterfeit money. Another source said the officials will also stop by Hong Kong to talk with its authorities about measures to be taken on North Korean money thought to be dealt with by banks there. A South Korean government official reiterated Seoul's stance saying that if evidence provided by the U.S. officials left no doubt as to North Korea's illicit activities, Seoul would abide by international norms. "Obviously, we will condemn those activities and ask for correctional steps to be taken by the North but, as it is, we still have to see more," said the official. Meanwhile, citing a United States Secret Service agent who is conducting counterfeit investigations in Las Vegas, Radio Free Asia reported that North Korean-forged $100 bills, dubbed "supernotes," are discovered at casinos in Las Vegas two to three times every month. by Kang Chan-ho, Brian Lee [Evidence]
• Resurfacing hardliners chill U.S.-N.K. relations
  By Lee Dong-min WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (Yonhap) -- Christopher Hill, chief U.S. delegate to the six-party talks on Korean denuclearization, has been unusually quiet since his return from the latest round of negotiations, fueling speculation that U.S.-North Korean ties have been seriously eroded. Inside sources say Hill currently has no planned public speaking engagements, despite having actively accepted invitations within days of his return from previous six-party talks. Meanwhile, North Korea on Wednesday snubbed a U.S. offer to have its officials travel to New York to be "briefed" on what prompted Washington's legal actions against Pyongyang's alleged illicit activities. Officials at the State Department, where Hill is assistant secretary for East Asia and the Pacific, are reluctant to talk about the situation, but various sources say the clash between hardliners and engagers has rekindled. It was this kind of friction that heavily limited the role of James Kelly, Hill's predecessor, at the earlier six-party talks. And sources say the renewed clash is already limiting Hill, who until now had the full backing of the Bush administration. Ironically, it was North Korea that allowed hardliners to relight their torch. After private talks with Hill during the six-party talks in Beijing, North Korean chief delegate Kim Kye-gwan announced that the U.S. had agreed to "bilateral negotiations" to discuss "sanctions" imposed by Washington. Since June, the Bush administration has frozen the assets of North Korea-linked entities it claims are abetting the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, introduced sanctions for a Macau-based bank suspected of laundering money for Pyongyang, and indicted an Irish man for circulating allegedly North Korean-made counterfeit U.S. dollars. The briefing in New York was meant to address Pyongyang's complaints about these actions. Hardliners in Washington, notably Vice President Dick Cheney, did not like Kim's choice of words, notably "bilateral" and "sanctions," and made sure the briefing would be strictly limited to law enforcement action by the Treasury Department, sans any meaningful presence by the State Department. [Cheney] [Camouflage] [[Bilateral] [Media]
• Ball in US Court for Six-Way Nuke Talks
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter
  No government officials on Thursday dared to officially confirm even whether Christopher Hill, top U.S. envoy to the six-party denuclearization talks, held a meeting with his North Korean counterpart Kim Gye-gwan in Beijing on Wednesday. Given that Hill's brief stopover in Beijing on his way to the U.S. _ or rather the second visit in a week on his tour of Asia _ was made at a critical juncture, officials in Seoul, Beijing and Washington might have agreed to remain silent until they could pin down a date to resume the disarmament talks. Hill unexpectedly returned to Beijing on the same day when North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was heading back to Pyongyang after allegedly consulting with China's President Hu Jintao in Beijing on how to deal with Washington's financial sanctions against Pyongyang. It is highly plausible that Hill had flown back to Washington with a proposal, containing ``creative'' ideas of the two Communist allies and South Korea on ways to resolve what Kim Jong-il called the ``difficulties'' that have allegedly blocked Pyongyang's return to the negotiation table. A tip-off to the proposal came a little earlier when Song Min-soon, Seoul's top diplomat to the six-party talks, told reporters on Jan. 11, right after his return to Seoul from a one-day trip to Beijing, that he exchanged ``creative opinions'' with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei. Another Seoul official, who is deeply involved in the talks, went a step further, saying figuratively that ``Song made dough together with Wu and now we have to wait and see whether it will become bread or nothing.'' The metaphor could mean the ball is now in Washington's court. Currently, the best way to lift sanctions is considered to be an apology from Pyongyang as it seems almost certain that the U.S. has evidence to prove North Korea's alleged counterfeiting of U.S. dollars and laundering of the ``supernotes'' in a bank in Macau, a Chinese territory. [Evidence] [Camouflage] [Evidence]
• Resumption of nuke talks likely to take shape this month: Song
  South Korea's chief delegate to the six-party talks said yesterday the outline for the next round of the nuclear negotiations will likely take shape within this month. "We are working towards possibly seeing within this month the outline of relevant factors such as the date of the next negotiations," Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said during a forum hosted by the Civil Network for a Peaceful Korea. Recently, chief delegates to the talks have been visiting each other and holding undisclosed meetings, signs of hopeful developments in the stalled nuclear standoff.
  The six-party talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia reached a stalemate after North Korea protested over Washington's financial sanctions imposed on a Macau-based bank for allegedly helping the communist state launder counterfeited U.S. dollars. Song flew to China on Monday for a two-day visit and met his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei. "We must look for ways the three countries can solve this problem as the allegation involves North Korea purportedly counterfeiting U.S. money in a country controlled by China." [Evidence]

• Talks Stalled, U.S. Envoy Matches Insults of North Korea
  By JAMES BROOKE Published: December 15, 2005 SEOUL, South Korea, Dec. 14 - North Korea's state news agency recently proposed a novel punishment for the new United States ambassador here, Alexander Vershbow: South Koreans should force him to stand in the midst of Seoul's notorious downtown traffic, and then "punish him in the name of the nation and immediately expel him from their land." But as rush hour traffic thickened outside the embassy windows on Tuesday evening, the ambassador was ensconced in his eighth-floor corner office, unruffled by North Korea's verbal fusillade, which included the charge that the Bush administration "is made up of political imbeciles and master hands at faking up lies." The nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea will continue, the American envoy said with an evenness polished by nearly three decades in the Foreign Service. "We have been there before, we have seen similar brinkmanship tactics from the North Koreans in the past," said Mr. Vershbow, a Russian expert who arrived here two months ago. "We remain ready to resume the talks." But lately, both sides seem to be playing at brinkmanship. In three appearances over the last week, Ambassador Vershbow has seemingly gone out of his way to talk tough to the North Koreans. In a news conference last Wednesday he referred to North Korea's government seven times as "a criminal regime." Noting that North Korea tries to make money by counterfeiting American currency, he said, "North Korea is the first regime that has done that since Adolf Hitler." [Media] [Vituperation] [Six Party Talks] [Camouflage]
• Gap between allies widens over N. Korea
  By Choe Sang-Hun International Herald Tribune THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2005 SEOUL A long-running disagreement between the United States and South Korea over how to deal with North Korea widened publicly Thursday, when international human rights advocates gathered for a high-profile conference here and called for the overthrow of the North Korean government. The rights conference, which Washington supports enthusiastically and Seoul has snubbed, has dramatically underscored what appears to be a worsening policy gap between the two governments, even as they proceed with six-party talks with the North. Washington dispatched its special envoy on North Korean human rights and its ambassador to Seoul to attend the three-day forum. But the South Korean foreign minister and its human rights ambassador turned down invitations, offering instead to send a mid-level official only to a conference dinner. The U.S. enthusiasm for the conference and South Korean coolness followed a sharp and direct exchange between officials of the two governments. [Friction] [Camouflage] [Six Party Talks] [Counterfeiting] [Human rights] [Strategic incoherence]
• US says N Korea 'criminal regime'
  Mr Vershbow became ambassador to South Korea in October A senior US diplomat has branded North Korea a "criminal regime" involved in arms sales, drug trafficking and currency forgery. Alexander Vershbow, the new US ambassador to South Korea, was explaining why the US had imposed economic sanctions against the North. The unusually harsh comments are likely to infuriate North Korea. The North warned on Tuesday it could walk out of talks on its nuclear plans unless the sanctions were lifted. But Mr Vershbow, who is a Russian specialist and former Nato envoy, told journalists on Wednesday that the sanctions were a matter of law enforcement. "This is a criminal regime," he said. "And we can't somehow remove our sanctions as a political gesture when this regime is engaging in dangerous activities such as weapons exports to rogue states, narcotics trafficking as a state activity and counterfeiting of our money on a large scale," he said. Correspondents say the allegations are not new, but it is unusual for them to be made so publicly. Crack down The timing of the comments will also cast doubt on the prospects of six nation talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions. [Camouflage] [Six Party Talks] [Friction]
• North Korea Demands U.S. Lift Sanctions
  North Korea Threatens to Boycott Talks Unless U.S. Lifts Sanctions Against Eight of Its Companies A former South Korean spy who penetrated into North Korea smashes to destroy a tombstone of an ex-North Korean spy at a park near Bokwang Buddhist temple in Paju, northwest of Seoul, Monday, Dec. 5, 2005. A group of 40 South Korean right-wing activists Monday smashed tombstones at graves of six former spies from North Korea in a park close to the border with the communist country.(AP Photo/Yonhap, Ahn Jung-hwan) By KWANG-TAE KIM Associated Press Writer The Associated Press SEOUL, South Korea Dec 6, 2005 - North Korea on Tuesday threatened to boycott multinational talks on eliminating its nuclear weapons program unless the United States lifts financial sanctions. Washington imposed sanctions in October on eight North Korean companies it called fronts for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. also suspects North Korea of counterfeiting and money-laundering. North Korea denies the allegations. "It is impossible to resume the six-party talks under such provocative sanctions applied by the U.S.," on North Korea, the state's Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a commentary carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. [Sanctions] [Media]
• N Korea threatens talks walk-out
  By Charles Scanlon BBC News, Seoul The most recent round of talks made no real progress North Korea is threatening to boycott international talks on its nuclear weapons programme unless the US drops financial sanctions against it. The warning from its state media comes amid a growing row over Washington's efforts to tackle North Korean money laundering and counterfeiting. The last round of nuclear talks was held in November and no date has been set for the next session. The sanctions row threatens to undermine the six-party nuclear talks. An editorial in the ruling party newspaper said it would be impossible to resume talks while the United States continued to impose what it called "provocative sanctions". [Sanctions] [Media]
• Seoul urges U.S., North Korea to clear up financial dispute
  Describing it as a "bumper-to-bumper" accident, Seoul urged Washington and Pyongyang to clear up their financial conflict to enable the six-party talks over North Korea's nuclear standoff to progress as soon as possible. "This accident must be taken care of immediately" in order to let the six-party talks move forward towards the ultimate goal, South Korea's chief negotiator Song Min-soon said in a radio interview yesterday morning. Casting clouds over the prospects of the next nuclear negotiations, Washington and Pyongyang clashed most recently over the suspension of transactions by U.S. financial institutions with a Macau-based bank upon claims that North Korea has distributed counterfeit U.S. dollars. North Korea strongly protested against the move calling it a "financial sanction that betrays the agreement of principles," and refused to attend a briefing session on the issue suggested by the United States last week. The two are also at odds over continual attempts by the United States to highlight North Korea's human rights issue and the former's suspension of 25,000 tons of food scheduled to be supplied to the destitute state.
  South Korea believes its role is to be the "prompter" of the main purpose of the six-party talks, which walk between diverse conflicts of interest.
  He denied a report by Japan's Sankei Shinbun that said North Korea gave an ultimatum to boycott the six-party talks unless the financial sanction is removed. "When you look closely at what North Korea said, it was not conclusive as it was reported," Song said. Unification Minister and head of the National Security Council Chung Dong-young, in a separate occasion, underscored the government's intention to stand back. "The pending problems that the United States has with North Korea are those that need to be untangled through the bilateral talks between the two," Chung said in a speech arranged by Korea University yesterday. Chung listed the issues under six categories, explaining that Washington was paying attention to North Korea's missile programs, biochemical weapons development, conventional forces, human rights issue, drugs and counterfeit money. [Friction] [Bilateral]
• N Korea stalls on nuclear talks
  TOKYO (AFP) - North Korea has said it will not attend the next round of talks on its nuclear weapons program until the chief US negotiator agrees to meet his North Korean counterpart in Washington. A senior official at North Korea's permanent mission to the United Nations has demanded that US envoy Christopher Hill meet with Kim Gye-gwan, Japan's Sankei Shimbun daily reported Sunday citing unnamed diplomatic sources in Washington. The official said that the vice foreign minister, who is the Stalinist nation's chief negotiator at the six-party talks, wanted to talk to Hill about North Korea's alleged money-laundering in Macau, the report said. [Media] [Counterfeiting] [Camouflage]
• Talks killed after 'bilateral' is said
  December 03, 2005 ? A meeting between North Korea and the United States to address Washington's economic sanctions has been canceled over a dispute about the meaning of "bilateral," the Washington Post reported yesterday. While State Department officials denied this, the newspaper said, Washington confirmed that North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye-gwan had scrapped a trip to New York for a meeting on Dec. 11 with U.S. officials. After the six- nation talks in Beijing last month, Mr. Kim announced that his U.S. counterpart Christopher Hill had agreed to hold bilateral talks in New York. Mr. Kim's labeling of the meeting as "bilateral" irritated Washington, and State Department officials said Mr. Hill would not attend. The North canceled Mr. Kim's trip in response.
• Seoul Urges US, NK, China to Address Sanctions
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter The United States, North Korea and China are the directly involved parties in Pyongyang's alleged counterfeiting of U.S. dollars, as the issue came to the fore through a bank in the Chinese territory, Deputy Foreign Minister Song Min-soon said on Wednesday.
  He, however, said that South Korea also has a ``serious'' concern as it is affecting the resumption of the six-party talks. In September, the U.S. Treasury Department designated Banko Delta Asia in Macao as a primary money-laundering concern under Section 311 of the USA Patriot Act. The department described the bank as a ``pawn'' of Pyongyang's front companies used for distributing bogus $100 bills, known as ``supernotes.''
  ``If the allegation is true, we can't tolerate it either,'' Song, Seoul's top envoy to the six-party talks, said at a seminar hosted by the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul. ``Our stance is to solve it, following international norms.''
  He said that Seoul is currently analyzing relevant information and all the involved countries are conducting ``silent'' contacts to find a solution. [Evidence] [Friction]
• 'No ROK-US Discord Over NK Counterfeiting'
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter
  Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Tuesday that South Korea shares the international community's ``serious concern'' about North Korea's alleged counterfeiting of U.S. dollars. Seoul and Washington have no discord on the matter, both agreeing counterfeiting is an intolerable illegal activity and are actively sharing information to verify the issue, Chung said during a question-and-answer session held at Seoul Foreign Correspondents' Club in central Seoul. Chung said that the issue must be dealt with outside the framework of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs, despite the North's repeated claims that such allegations made by the United States, which it views as part of the U.S. ``hostile policy,'' stands in the way of the resumption of the nuclear talks. ``During the South-North ministerial talks, we delivered our position that if such illegal activities (as counterfeiting) are truly being pursued, it cannot be tolerated in the international community and that it should be stopped immediately,'' Chung said. During the latest round of inter-Korean ministerial talks held Dec. 13-16 on the southern resort island of Cheju, the South stressed to the North that the counterfeiting or U.S. financial sanctions against the North are bilateral issues to be resolved between Washington and Pyongyang, he said.
  ``Toward the normalization of the United States-North Korea ties, there are so-called six pending issues including missiles and human rights besides the counterfeiting and drug-trafficking,'' the minister said. ``Our government has maintained that such bilateral issues should be separated from the six-nation talks, as it would be difficult to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula when the six-nation talks stumble every time such issues surface,'' he said. [Evidence] [Friction] [Bilateralism]
• US Envoy Urges NK to Stop Bill Forgeries
  By Jung Sung-ki Staff Reporter
  The United States has ``forensic'' evidence that the counterfeited U.S. dollars circulated in South Korea last year was from North Korea, U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Alexander Vershbow said Friday.
  The top U.S. envoy also urged Pyongyang to take verifiable and immediate actions to stop its alleged production of forged U.S. bills. But he stressed that Washington is committed to peacefully resolving the stalemate over the North's nuclear weapons program.
  Vershbow said that U.S. authorities were able to believe the counterfeit $100 notes, dubbed ``supernotes,'' were from North Korea through information and forensic proof, adding the U.S. plans to share the information with South Korea.
  In October last year, the National Police Agency in Seoul rounded up a crime ring that produced fake 280 U.S. bills valued at around 30 million won ($29,000). At that time, police secured some statements from suspects that the ring was operating in Beijing, but failed to identify the home place of the criminals. [Evidence] [Friction] [Counterfeiting]
• Seoul Asks US to Disclose More on NK's Illicit Acts
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- South Korea has asked the United States to release more information on North Korea's counterfeiting to determine the facts of the matter, a diplomatic source here said Wednesday. The request comes as the U.S. and North Korea clash over accusations of illicit financial activities by Pyongyang including money laundering, counterfeiting of U.S. currency and smuggling of illegal goods. Pyongyang is accused of producing and floating fake U.S. dollars throughout the world. In September, the U.S. Treasury Department forbade American banks from dealing with Banco Delta Asia, saying the Macau-based bank was laundering money for North Korea and abetting Pyongyang's illicit conduct including circulation of counterfeit dollars. The following month, Sean Garland, senior member of an Irish Republican Army splinter group, was indicted by the U.S. on charges of conspiring with North Korea to float millions of dollars in fake U.S. currency. But details surrounding these incidents have been sparse. "We think there should be more information disclosed about the bogus $100 bills North Korea is believed to have circulated," the source said. Washington has said these actions are law enforcement issues and separate from those addressed at six-party nuclear negotiations, but North Korea has strongly protested the Treasury Department's moves and threatened to stay away from the nuclear talks. The department briefed foreign diplomats, including those from South Korea, the European Union, Australia and Singapore, on Friday about North Korea's illicit activities. 12-22-2005 20: [Evidence] [Friction] [Counterfeiting] [Camouflage]
• US Has No Doubts about NK Counterfeiting Dollars: Hill
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- Foreign diplomats briefed last week have accepted evidence that North Korea is counterfeiting U.S.dollars, a senior U.S. State Department official said Tuesday. "I saw them the other day," Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said about fake $100 notes. "My own suggestion is, if someone gives you a $100 note, look at it very carefully," said Hill, talking to South Korean reporters. [Counterfeiting] [Evidence] [Arrogance]
• Officials fret over Seoul counterfeit stance
  December 23, 2005 ? While Seoul is sticking to its official line that there is no conclusive evidence of North Korean counterfeiting, some officials here worry that the government's fear of stirring up the North and perhaps jeopardizing the six-party nuclear talks has made its position with Washington untenable. A South Korean intelligence official told the JoongAng Daily yesterday that the North's counterfeiting activities have been monitored since the early 1990s and that evidence gathered during that period is enough to give credibility to Washington's claim that Pyongyang has manufactured forged U.S. dollar bills. "With current government policies in place that want to keep the North's regime afloat, the government wants to delay acting on the issue as long as possible," the official said. "North Korean counterfeiting activities are nothing new, and they are a known lifeline for the North." Most officials here have been dodging questions and repeating that the administration wants more decisive evidence. "For us, there is the big picture to be considered. We have never said that we will just sit down and do nothing if there are illegal activities," said one senior government official. In a bid to counter the counterfeiting and sales of contraband goods, Washington has slapped sanctions on financial institutions and North Korean companies suspected of participating in such dealings. They most recently asserted those claims to diplomats, including those from Seoul, at a briefing last week on the counterfeit $100 "supernotes." The U.S. ambassador to Korea, Alexander Vershbow, has cited counterfeiting as one of the elements of his characterization of Pyongyang ass a "criminal regime." And a former official at the U.S. State Department, David Asher, told the JoongAng Ilbo that in addition to counterfeiting and drug trafficking, the North also distributes about $200 million per year of falsely labeled cigarettes. by Brian Lee [Friction] [Evidence] [Collusion]
• Foreign Minister Dodges US Rebuff
  Ban Ki-moon, minister of foreign affairs and trade, Wednesday tried to dodge criticism by a top U.S. lawmaker who accused Seoul of taking an apologetic attitude toward communist North Korea. The comments came after Henry Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, sent a letter to the top U.S. envoy in Seoul Tuesday supporting his stern stance on North Korea. Earlier this month, U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow dubbed North Korea a "criminal regime," accusing it of involvement in large-scale counterfeiting and drug-trafficking. At the time, Ban expressed regret, saying that countries participating in the six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear programs should refrain from "using expressions unfavorable to dialogue partners." But in the letter, Hyde applauded the U.S. ambassador for his straight-forward remarks and appeared to criticize Seoul for siding with the North. "Those who would make apologies for such a regime are no friends of America or her people," Hyde said in the letter. [Friction] [Solipsism] [Vituperation]
• Vershbow Stands Firm Over NK Counterfeiting
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter Washington's top envoy to Seoul reconfirmed Friday that the U.S. administration will not negotiate with North Korea over its financial sanctions on the Pyongyang regime. Alexander Vershbow, however, expressed regret over a ``lively debate'' that took place in South Korea due to his calling of North Korea a ``criminal regime.'' ``We don't negotiate over the enforcement of our law,'' Vershbow told South Korean reporters at his residence in central Seoul. ``But we are prepared to inform the North Koreans as to how our law operates.''
  In a related development, the U.S. State Department was scheduled to host a briefing session for foreign diplomats in Washington on Friday over North Korea's illicit activities, such as money laundering. A councilor-level South Korean official will attend it, but no North Korean officials will take part in the session, diplomatic sources in Seoul said. As for evidence of Pyongyang's involvement in financial illegalities, Vershbow mentioned the recent arrest of Sean Garland, head of the communist Workers Party of Ireland, who provided the first confirmation of North Korea's links to so-called supernote. [Evidence] [Solipsism]
• U.S. envoy urged to refrain from hostile remarks on N.K.
  National Assembley speaker expresses regret
  National Assembly Speaker Kim One-ki expressed regret yesterday toward recent hostile remarks about North Korea made by U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow. Vershbow labeled the North a "criminal regime" last week, and said it was the first government to take part in counterfeiting money since Adolf Hitler's Germany. "It is undesirable for an ambassador to make remarks that do not help inter-Korean peace which is a life or death matter to us," said Kim in an interview with a radio program. "Regrettably, the ambassador seems to be going too far," he said. Kim is a member of the ruling Uri Party. [Friction] Camouflage] [Vituperation] [Six Party Talks]
• Speaker Slams US Envoy for Anti-NK Remarks
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter A group of Christian civic activists holds a rally denouncing U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow for making what they call provocative remarks against North Korea in Kwanghwamun, central Seoul, Thursday. /Korea Times U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow's recent labeling of North Korea as a ``criminal regime'' went beyond the bounds, National Assembly Speaker Kim Won-ki said on Thursday. It is the second remark to come from parliament in a week, criticizing the American envoy to Seoul for his ``provocative'' definition of the Pyongyang regime. On Tuesday, Rep. Kim Won-wung of the ruling Uri Party warned that he would introduce a resolution, demanding Washington recall Vershbow. ``It is regrettable that Ambassador Vershbow's statements went too far,'' the speaker said during an interview with a KBS radio program. ``His remarks were not appropriate for an ambassador to South Korea, which is endeavoring to stabilize peace on the Korean Peninsula.'' [Friction] [Camouflage] [Regime change]
• U.S. Banks Are Warned on North Korea
  By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer Wed Dec 14, 9:44 AM ET
  WASHINGTON - The Bush administration has issued a warning to U.S. banks that North Korea may try to use them to carry out illicit activities.
  The advisory from the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network represents the latest effort by the United States to financially clamp down on North Korea. "U.S. financial institutions should take reasonable steps to guard against the abuse of their financial services by North Korea, which may be seeking to establish new or exploit existing account relationships for the purpose of conducting illicit activities," according to the advisory, which was dated Tuesday. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCen, is responsible for making sure the U.S. financial system is not vulnerable to terrorist financiers, drug lords, money launderers and others engaged in financial crimes. [Sanctions] [Camouflage][ Counterfeiting]
• Lawmakers Urges US Envoy to Be More Cautious on NK
  SEOUL (Yonhap) _ A South Korean ruling party lawmaker said Tuesday he would submit a resolution to urge the government to ask the U.S. to recall its ambassador to Seoul if the envoy continues to take a hard-line stance against North Korea. Rep. Kim Wong-wung of the Uri Party called for Alexander Vershbow to be cautious in choosing words to describe North Korea. The warning came after Washington's top envoy here openly labeled North Korea a " criminal regime" last week, citing Pyongyang's alleged involvement in the export of dangerous technologies, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and the counterfeiting of U.S. money. The envoy ruled out the possibility of negotiations between his country and the communist state over Washington's recent financial sanctions. On Monday, Vershbow also called for Seoul to link the pace of inter-Korean economic cooperation with the progress of the six-way talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear weapons program.
  Some progressive figures say his criticism of North Korea went too far at a time when multilateral efforts to bring peace to the Korean Peninsula are at crucial juncture. "Ambassador Vershbow's remarks are due to either his lack of specialization on the Korean Peninsula or intention to damage peace on the peninsula," Rep. Kim said in a radio talk show. Vershbow should bear in mind that South Korea will not regard as an ally any country standing in the way of the peninsula's peace, he added. [Friction] [Camouflage] [Six Party Talks]
• NK Denies US Charges of Criminal Activities
  By Seo Dong-shin Staff Reporter North Korea flatly denied the United States' allegations of state-level criminal activities such as counterfeiting or illegal trade Saturday, blaming the U.S. for possible suspension of the six-party talks to deal with its nuclear programs. The North's Foreign Ministry spokesman said in an interview with the (North) Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the official mouthpiece of the regime, that the illegal activities are ``beyond imagination'' of the country, and insisted such allegations only proved the U.S. ``mastery of fakery.'' ``We have thoroughly reviewed the materials presented by the U.S. on our so-called illegal activities,'' the spokesman said. ``The results tell us that they are pure fabrications.''
• N. Korea Slams U.S. Envoy Over Comments
  By BO-MI LIM The Associated Press Saturday, December 10, 2005; 7:36 PM
  SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea denounced the new U.S. ambassador to South Korea for calling the communist nation a "criminal regime," saying Saturday his remark was tantamount to a declaration of war. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow made the comment Tuesday, citing alleged illicit activities by North Korea like money laundering and counterfeiting.
  Jay Lefkowitz, the U.S. envoy for human rights in North Korea answers reporters question during a U.S.-supported international conference for North Korea's human rights in Seoul, Friday, Dec. 9, 2005. Lefkowotz argued Friday that the lack of basic liberties in the communist nation was an international issue and said the world should press Pyongyang to reform. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) (Lee Jin-man - AP) North Korea called the statement "a sort of provocative declaration of a war" and threatened to "mercilessly retaliate against it," the official Korean Central News Agency quoted an unidentified spokesman for the North's committee on peaceful reunification as saying. [Camouflage]
• KCNA Refutes U.S. Smear Campaign against DPRK
  Pyongyang, November 30 (KCNA) -- The U.S. hard- line conservatives have become evermore undisguised in their campaign to label the DPRK a "lawless state." They painted the DPRK as "the only country in the world which is actively sponsoring crimes", "a criminal state linked with an organized criminal group" and "an abnormal state," asserting that it is linked with the "group engaged in issuing counterfeit notes." This is the most malignant mud-slinging at the dignified DPRK and its system. It is neither surprising nor new to the DPRK that the U.S. is misleading the public opinion with sheer lies intended to give impression that the DPRK is sponsoring crimes. The DPRK can not but take note of the fact that the U.S. hard-line conservatives have escalated the campaign to slander the DPRK as a "lawless state" in a phased manner after the publication of the September 19 joint statement. This campaign is part of the U.S. psychological operation to brand the DPRK as "a lawless state", tarnish its image and isolate and stifle its system at any cost.
• Scholar brands policy to North uncoordinated
  December 02, 2005 ? As the nations involved in North Korean nuclear negotiations search for a way to implement an international accord reached in September that would see North Korea dismantle its nuclear weapons, Jack Pritchard, a former U.S. envoy for North Korean affairs, said yesterday that prospects for the nuclear talks were "unclear." "There is a two-track policy employed by Washington which is uncoordinated and may have a negative effect," Mr. Pritchard told the JoongAng Daily. The former envoy, currently a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution, participated yesterday in a forum on Korean peninsula issues and the geopolitical future of East Asia hosted by the JoongAng Ilbo, the institute, the Seoul Forum for International Affairs and the Korean-American Association. He said Washington's short-term goal of coming to terms with Pyongyang's nuclear threat, while taking into account the concerns of other nations, and the Bush administration's aim to simultaneously crack down on North Korea's illegal activities, such as money laundering, would have to be well balanced. " I don't think the administration thought through everything when they did this. How they [Washington] resolve this issue is important." At a fifth round of six-party talks in November that merely served to feel out each nation's position, the North's chief negotiator Kim Gye- gwan expressed Pyongyang's displeasure at Washington for imposing sanctions in October against eight North Korean companies suspected of weapons proliferation, and demanded Washington withdraw accusations that counterfeit $100 bills known as "supernotes" originated in Pyongyang. The talks broke off without a date being set to reconvene and observers noted that reaching a consensus over the implementation and sequencing of the joint agreement will be as hard, if not harder, as reaching the agreement in September. Mr. Pritchard also suggested Washington erred when it allowed the issue of a light water reactor to be included in the joint statement. "If it (Washington) had no intention of providing a light water reactor in the first place, to agree to that language was a mistake." In the fourth round of negotiations that led to the agreement, Washington faced pressure from other parties to give in to this demand or take partial blame for a possible breakdown in the talks. Washington agreed to discuss "at an appropriate time" the provision of the light water reactor. In a paper presented to the forum, Mr. Pritchard underlined this point: "It was probably a strategic mistake to make the tactical decision to sign the joint statement of September 19, that contained the promise of a serious discussion of a future light water reactor for Pyongyang." by Brian Lee [Six Party Talks] [JS050919] [Partisan] [Strategic incoherence]
• Semantic Dispute Cancels N. Korea, Treasury Meeting
  By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, December 1, 2005; Page A22 In the latest diplomatic kerfuffle between the United States and North Korea, a planned meeting between North Korean and Treasury officials was scrubbed this week over a dispute about the meaning of the word "bilateral." The issue may seem arcane, but it has achieved outsize importance among North Korea watchers as a sign that the Bush administration has begun to limit its diplomatic flexibility in dealing with North Korea since a tentative agreement was reached in September for North Korea to give up its nuclear programs.
  State Department officials deny that, but the net result is that a group of senior North Korean officials -- including Vice Foreign Minister Kim Gye Gwan -- decided not to travel to New York for planned meetings with U.S. officials Dec. 9 to 11. The dispute has its roots in the last round of six-nation talks on North Korea's weapons programs, conducted last month in Beijing. During the talks, the North Korean officials complained bitterly about recent Treasury Department actions against companies and banks allegedly involved in counterfeiting, money laundering and arms proliferation on behalf of North Korea. Kim labeled the actions "economic sanctions," but Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill responded that they were law enforcement actions unrelated to the talks. He suggested that North Korean officials come to the United States for a briefing on the matter. [US NK negotiations] [Sanctions]

• Six-Party Talks on North Korea Turn Sour
  Six-Party Talks on North Korean Nuclear Program Turn Sour As Pyongyang Makes Demands of U.S. By KWANG-TAE KIM Associated Press Writer The Associated Press BEIJING Nov 10, 2005 - Talks on North Korea's nuclear programs turned sour Thursday as Pyongyang demanded that Washington lift sanctions against firms suspected of weapons proliferation and stop accusing the North of counterfeiting U.S. money, news reports said. North Korean delegates accused the United States of undermining a September agreement in which Pyongyang pledged to disarm in exchange for aid and security guarantees, the South's Yonhap news agency reported, citing unidentified officials. The North also voiced displeasure over President Bush's reference to a "tyrant" in North Korea widely seen as a slap at its leader, Kim Jong Il, Yonhap said.
  The disputes cast a pall over the talks between the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia. South Korean officials told Yonhap that progress had become difficult. The U.S. negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, said the demands fell beyond the scope of the six-party talks. "They made clear that they are not happy," Hill said late Thursday. "But I made very clear that I don't do financial sector regulations." Washington imposed sanctions in October on eight North Korean companies accused of acting as fronts for sales of banned missile, nuclear or bioweapons technology. The order froze any assets in areas under U.S. jurisdiction, but it wasn't clear whether that had any impact because the United States bans trade with North Korea.
• US Official Warns Consequences for NK's Counterfeiting
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- A senior U.S. official warned Wednesday there will be "significant consequences" for North Korea for its government involvement in the circulation of fake American dollars. "There are counterfeiting rings out there producing very high quality counterfeit U.S. currency that are associated with the government of North Korea," Stuart Levey, treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in remarks at the Heritage Foundation in downtown Washington. "That's something we can't just allow to occur without significant consequences," he said.
• KCNA Refutes U.S. Anti-DPRK Human Rights Campaign
  Pyongyang, November 8 (KCNA) -- The United States has become all the more vicious in its anti-DPRK smear campaign under the pretext of its "human rights issue." Shortly ago, the U.S. manipulated the Freedom House and other NGOs to hold an "international conference on the north Korean human rights issue" and staged such farce as mailing a bundle of letters of complaints. It also instigated Britain and other countries to fabricate and spread sheer fictions about "illicit dealings" such as "counterfeit notes" and "drug smuggling." Under the U.S. manipulation Britain referred "a draft resolution on the north Korean human rights issue" to the 60th session of the UN General Assembly on behalf of the EU despite the objection of several countries including some EU nations, thus joining the U.S. in its "human rights" campaign. This clearly reveals that the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK remains unchanged as it diametrically runs counter to the spirit of the fourth round of the six-party talks. The U.S. is keen to slander the DPRK and pressurize it at a time when key issues pending solution between the two countries need serious discussion with the fifth round of the six-party talks near at hand. It is virtually intolerable when taking the relations between sovereign states into account and a serious insult to its dialogue partner. Lurking behind the U.S. "human rights racket" is a foolish attempt to escalate pressure upon the DPRK, wrest a "concession" from it at the forthcoming six-party talks and, furthermore, realize a "regime change" in it.

• U.S. Political Farce under Fire
  Pyongyang, October 21 (KCNA) -- The United States has recently escalated its smear campaign against the DPRK. Typical of this is its fiction about a "deal in counterfeits" floated by the U.S. this time. The U.S. is claiming that the DPRK is massively issuing highly sophisticated false 100 US dollar notes known as "super money" and spreading them worldwide. In order to verify this, no sooner had Garland, leader of the Irish Workers' Party, been arrested than the U.S. Department of Justice released on October 7 a "written indictment" which it has long prepared. The "written indictment" characterized by extreme nature of politicization and selection said that there was a "deal in counterfeits" between the DPRK and Garland. Nothing is clumsier than what was invented by the U.S., a past master at lies, fabrication, disinformation and plot. What matters is that Americans who claim to be "politicians" are advertising this case as their latest success made in the U.S. increased efforts to prevent north Korea from committing widespread international crimes. The hue and cry over the non-existent DPRK's "production and deal in counterfeits" raised by the U.S. again is nothing but a clumsy and base political farce intended to impair the image of the DPRK at any cost and justify its moves to isolate the former in the international arena and tighten its blockade against the former. The U.S. escalated smear campaign against the DPRK only goes to prove that the former regards it as one of the basic means to create impression that the latter is a "rogue state" in a bid to realize its ambition for bringing down the latter's "system" and the former remains unchanged in its policy for isolating and stifling the DPRK internationally. The socialist system in the DPRK was chosen and built by the Korean people themselves according to their will and wishes. Because of the nature of the socialist system and its popular character there can never happen nor exist in the DPRK such "illegal deals" as "deal in counterfeits" or "drug smuggling", social ills in the capitalist society. [Bluster] [Counterfeiting] [Black]
• U.S. links counterfeit currency to North Korea and the IRA
  October 14, 2005 ? The U.S. government has asked Great Britain to extradite a senior member of a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army on charges of conspiring with North Korea to circulate counterfeit U.S. currency. A U.S. State Department spokesman, Adam Ereli, told reporters on Wednesday that a U.S. grand jury has indicted Sean Garland, the head of the political wing of the Official Irish Republican Army. Washington is seeking his extradition. The U.S. Department of Justice said that Mr. Garland and six others were arrested by British authorities on Oct. 7 in Northern Ireland on charges of circulating as much as $1 million worth of the counterfeits, which are known as "supernotes" because of their high quality. Mr. Garland pleaded not guilty and is free on bail. The notes were first spotted in circulation in 1989. Washington has periodically accused Pyongyang of engaging in counterfeiting and drug running, but this indictment was the most detailed exposition of those charges. In a statement, the Justice Department said the notes "were manufactured in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea under the auspices of the government and transported worldwide by North Korean individuals acting as ostensible government officials." The indictment came at a sensitive point in the six-nation negotiations to scrap North Korea's nuclear arms, but Mr. Ereli denied any connection between the counterfeiting and the talks. Although their origin has not been confirmed, "supernotes" are circulating in South Korea as well. Suh Tae-suk, an expert on counterfeit currency at the Korea Exchange Bank, told the JoongAng Daily yesterday that he has spotted this year alone fake notes that would be worth more than $200,000 if they were genuine. "Most of them are from the 2001 series," Mr. Suh said, referring to the date printed on the bills. [Counterfeiting] [Six Party Talks]
• 'NK's Counterfeiting Will Affect Relations'
  WASHINGTON (Yonhap) ? The United States suspects North Korea's involvement in circulating counterfeit dollars, and bilateral relations will be affected by such illicit activity, a State Department spokesman said Wednesday. "It's... obviously connected to countries like North Korea that do this..." Adam Ereli said at a daily press briefing.
  U.S. authorities in August announced the arrest of 57 people implicated in an Asia-based smuggling ring that circulated fake currencies, among other things. Sources who refused to give names said at the time that North Korea, Thailand and China were three main countries involved in the ring. Last month, the U.S. Treasury Department named Macau licensed Banco Delta Asia SARL as North Korea's money laundering instrument and said the bank was also deeply involved in distributing fake currency from the North. Ereli said U.S. relations with North Korea will hinge on a number of elements.
• US says N Korea forged dollars
  Sean Garland is accused of handling the counterfeits The US has formally accused North Korea of forging millions of dollars of high-quality counterfeit US dollar notes, known as supernotes. A US court indictment said seven men, including senior Irish republican Sean Garland, distributed the $100 fakes. North Korea has long been suspected of making supernotes, but this was the first time the US has given details. The US is seeking the extradition from the UK of Mr Garland, who denies the charges against him.
  The statement said that the "highly deceptive notes - which began to appear in worldwide circulation in or about 1989 - were manufactured in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea [North Korea] and under auspices of the government and transported worldwide by North Korean individuals acting as ostensible government officials".
  The indictment comes in the context of a wider US campaign against North Korean contraband. The US accused the North, in a State Department report last year, of state-sponsored drugs trafficking. It cited the 2003 apprehension of a North Korean ship in Australian waters allegedly carrying up to 125kg (275 pounds) of heroin and allegations by defectors that North Korea was engaged in large-scale opium poppy production. And last month, the US accused a bank in Macau of laundering money for the impoverished state. [Counterfeiting] [drugs] [disinformation]

• White House May Go to U.N. Over North Korean Shipments
  By DAVID E. SANGER Published: April 25, 2005
  WASHINGTON, April 24 - The Bush administration, facing a series of recent provocations from North Korea, is debating a plan to seek a United Nations resolution empowering all nations to intercept shipments in or out of the country that may contain nuclear materials or components, say senior administration officials and diplomats who have been briefed on the proposal.
  The resolution envisioned by a growing number of senior administration officials would amount to a quarantine of North Korea, though, so far at least, President Bush's aides are not using that word. It would enable the United States and other nations to intercept shipments in international waters off the Korean Peninsula and to force down aircraft for inspection. But, said several American and Asian officials, the main purpose would be to give China political cover to police its border with North Korea, the country's lifeline for food and oil. That border is now largely open for shipments of arms, drugs and counterfeit currencies, North Korea's main source of hard currency. [Interdiction] [drugs]

• U.S. Is Shaping Plan to Pressure North Koreans
  By DAVID E. SANGER Published: February 14, 2005 WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 - In the months before North Korea announced that it possessed nuclear weapons, the Bush administration began developing new strategies to choke off its few remaining sources of income, based on techniques in use against Al Qaeda, intelligence officials and policy makers involved in the planning say.
  The initial steps are contained in a classified "tool kit" of techniques to pressure North Korea that has been refined in recent weeks by the National Security Council. The new strategies would intensify and coordinate efforts to track and freeze financial transactions that officials say enable the government of Kim Jong Il to profit from counterfeiting, drug trafficking and the sale of missile and other weapons technology. Some officials describe the steps as building blocks for what could turn into a broader quarantine if American allies in Asia - particularly China and South Korea - can be convinced that Mr. Kim's declaration on nuclear weapons last week means he must finally be forced to choose between disarmament and even deeper isolation. China and South Korea have been reluctant to impose penalties on the North. To some degree the effort arises from Washington's lack of leverage over North Korea, and the absence of good military options, and it is far from clear that the administration's development of what one official calls "new instruments of pressure" will work. More than four decades of economic embargos of Cuba, tried by nine presidents, have failed, largely because European, Canadian and Latin American allies have not joined in. Nor have they succeeded against the Burmese, also a major source of drugs. The Secret Service has tried for years to halt North Korean counterfeiting dollars, and Australia and Japan have tried to end its sales of amphetamines and heroin. [Drugs] [Sanctions]
• Seoul Considers `Tool Kit' Inappropriate
  By Park Song-wu Staff Reporter The United States' strategies to block North Korea's sources of income are inappropriate at the moment because the formula for six-party talks over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions is still available, experts in Seoul said Tuesday. A classified ``tool kit'' of techniques to pressure North Korea contains Washington's plans to stop Pyongyang's profits from counterfeiting, drug trafficking and the sale of missile and other weapons technology, the New York Times reported in its Monday edition. [Friction] [Sanctions]

• Sean Garland cites the Babar Ahmad case
  Sean Garland is a veteran Irish Republican politician, with marxist / communist leanings, who was arrested in Belfast to be extradited to the USA, under the Extradition Act 2003. He is accused of being invlved in a plot involving counterfeit US currency distributed in Birmingham etc. in the UK. Astonishingly the counterfeiting is alleged to have been done by the North Koreans !. Distributing counteit currency, even foregn currency in the United Kingdom is primarily a crime in the United Kingdom, even if there are international implications. Sean Garland has cited the Babar Ahmad case as one of the reasons why he has chosen to break his bail and stay in the Irish Republic, where he was undergoing medical treatment. Sean Garland's personal statement. Although this case is very different from Gary McKinnon's case, the same principles of justice apply - if there is evidence of a crime committed under UK Law, then a person who is arrested in the UK, should be tried in a UK court, where he or his legal team can know exacltly what he is accused of and can challenge the evidence brouight against him. To be arrested in the UK and then shipped off to the USA , with no prima facie evidence being presented to a UK court, is simply wrong, no matter who you are, or what you are accused of. [Counterfeiting]
• Leader of 'Official IRA' in forgery plot
  Sunday, 20 June, 2004
  An Irish republican leader is responsible for flooding the UK money markets with near-perfect counterfeit money, it has been claimed. The BBC's Panorama programme has traced the supply of millions of fake US dollars to Sean Garland, a leader of the former paramilitary group, the Official IRA. Panorama also reveals that the profit from passing the currency is used to fund the republican group - which split with the better known Provisional IRA in 1970. The fake currency - known to intelligence agents as "superdollars" because it is so realistic - is believed to be printed in North Korea. It finds its way into the UK via the Russian mafia, with Sean Garland - who has contacts in Russia and North Korea - acting as the alleged ringleader of the UK distribution. The operation in the UK was smashed after a police investigation which resulted in several people being sent to prison. However, police believe the ringleader got away. Major player He was never arrested or questioned in connection with the plot, although his name was mentioned in court and he is known to US intelligence agencies as someone involved in the passing of superdollars. The money had been passing unnoticed in banks throughout the UK, until a massive undercover police operation in 2000 called Operation Mali. [Media] [Counterfeiting]
• Dodgy dollar rebel who plays the patriot game
  (with subsequent reply by Sean Garland - see below)
  LAST Sunday the BBC's Panorama told the riveting story of Sean Garland, President of the Workers' Party, whom they alleged was kingpin in a multimillion dollar conspiracy intent on destabilising the United States. Garland's certainly a stayer. Once upon a time he achieved minor fame as part of an IRA attack on Brookborough RUC which led to the death of Fergal O'Hanlon and Sean South and the birth of innumerable bad ballads. Now, 47 years later, he's a protege of China and a hero of North Korea.
  Now, according to Panorama , US intelligence had discovered in the late Eighties that North Korea had acquired the Intaglio, a highly sophisticated printing press similar to that used by the US Treasury and their printing and engraving offices. In 1989, a counterfeit $100 note of such quality that it became known as a 'superdollar' was spotted in the Philippines and forwarded to the US secret service.
  Subsequently, similar notes turned up again and again in the diplomatic bags of North Korean officials (along with businessmen, the only people allowed to travel). Balbwa Hwang, an Asian policy analyst, said on Panorama that, "North Korea has a state-sponsored programme in which it is counterfeiting US dollars, and they do so with a dual purpose: the first is obviously the profits that the regime can earn immediately; but they also have a longer-term strategy of attempting to destabilise the US economy."
  They had a good file on Garland, said Bill Gertz, Washington Times national security correspondent, on Panorama . (In his book, The China Threat , Gertz adds that the Cao-Garland meeting 'showed how China had become the ideological leader of what was left of the world communist movement. US intelligence officials saw Communist China clandestinely supporting international communists, including those involved in international criminal activities - even those suspected of developing counterfeit $100 bills. The intelligence was unwelcome news for [pro-China] Clinton-Gore administration and was suppressed.'
  Sean Garland responds to Ruth Dudley Edwards Sunday 4th July 2004 Sir - In reference to the wholly distorted and objectionable article by "Dame" Ruth Dudley Edwards in your issue of June 27 in which she uses a BBC Panorama/Spotlight programme as the basis for an attack on the integrity of the Workers' Party and Sean Garland, we would like to make the following points: 1. We are pursuing through a number of avenues vindication of ourselves in regard to the BBC programmes in order to have corrected the gross slanders and lies contained in these programmes. [Media] [Counterfeiting]
• Seán Garland
  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
  Seán Garland (7 March 1934-) is president of the Workers Party of Ireland. Born in Dublin, Garland joined the Irish Republican Army in 1953. In 1954, he briefly joined the British army and collected intelligence on Gough Barracks in Armagh. This enabled the IRA to carry out a massive arms raid, which took place on 12 June 1954 with Garland's active involvement, on the base. Garland left the British army in October of the same year and became a fulltime IRA training officer.
  On 7 October 2005, Garland was arrested in Belfast on foot of an extradition application issued by the US authorities. The American authorities allege that Garland has been involved in a massive counterfeiting operation involving almost perfect copies of US dollars - so-called "superdollars". They also allege that this counterfeiting involved the DPRK government. Garland was released on bail. It is thought that the U.S. waited for Garland to travel north of the Irish border before seeking his extradition, believing the United Kingdom authorities would be more willing to acquiesce than those in the Republic of Ireland.[1] [2] On 9 October 2005, a Sunday Times article alleged that Garland became chief of staff of the largely inactive Official IRA in 1998.[3] On 1 December, the High Court in Belfast issued a warrant for Garland's arrest after he failed to appear for an extradition hearing. [Counterfeiting]
• Stop the Extradition of Sean Garland
  Welcome to the website of the Campaign to Stop the Extradition of Sean Garland to the United States
  The Campaign to Stop the Extradition of Sean Garland to the United States has been formed in response to the extraordinary arrest of the Workers' Party President at the opening of his party's annual conference in Belfast on 7th October 2005. It is our intention to build a broad campaign in Ireland and abroad to highlight this blatant injustice and attack on an Irish citizen and leading socialist, and to ensure that Sean Garland's constitutional and human rights are upheld. We call on all progressive individuals and organisations to support our campaign on behalf of Sean Garland. This website will keep you updated on the situation, and on our campaign. Last updated on Thursday, January 26, 2006 [Counterfeiting]
• Response to Irish Times
  Sean Garland responds to "Agenda" article in Irish Times on Monday 17th October 2005
  Geraldine Kennedy, Editor, The Irish Times. 17th October 2005
  Dear Editor, The lurid article on your "Agenda" page of Monday, 17th October, is a further example of the Irish Times' descent into cheap tabloid sensationalism.
  Clearly the author has had sight of some sort of document. I want to make it clear at the outset that whatever documents have been produced by the United States Authorities, neither myself or my legal team have had as yet received any information from the US authorities to set out the nature of the allegations against me. I know that some people have had sight of a document which purports to give a chronological account of alleged meetings, trips and visits to various countries worldwide. No evidence is offered of any crime or wrongdoing and it is very much designed to create a climate which will, to say the least, blacken my name in the public mind.
  The media are playing a part in this process and the use of North Korean poster on your Agenda page is designed to bolster up the image of North Korea and Sean Garland as put forward by the United States.
  As of today, 17th Octoberm I am still in discussions with my legal representatives on what is, for my family, myself and Party, a most serious matter. Again I wish to strenuously deny all of these allegations which stem from a very dubious source. I fully intend to contest all of these allegations in court. My ability to do so however is hampered by lack of information from US authorities and much misinformed and prejudicial media comment of which your Agenda piece is but one major example of trial by media. In the meantime, I am awaiting the outcome of certain legal procedures and I would expect the media to do the same.
  Yours, Sean Garland Party President, The Workers' Party [Media] [Counterfeiting]