NORTH KOREA ISSUING COUNTERFEIT U.S. CURRENCY

Bloomberg is reporting today that one of the problems holding up the six-party talks over North Korea's nuclear weapons program is the accusation that the North Korean government is printing counterfeit U.S. $100 bills. The United States has known of the fake $100 bills which are often called "supernotes" since 1989 and has confiscated approximately $50 million of the counterfeit bills. A Korean newspaper/website doing research on a story about the supernotes was able to obtain one, which is pictured below. The bills can be purchased for $70 each and are very difficult to detect. The United States has frozen North Korean assets held in at least one bank due to concerns that the bank is helping to launder money for the North Korean government. Many have speculated since 1989 that the United States will issue new and different $100 bills and might require that all old $100 bills be exchanged and destroyed, rendering the counterfeits worthless.

Daily NK