NORTH Korea has allegedly started printing counterfeit US$100 bank notes and is passing them off to travellers and in business transactions, according to media reports.
Travel companies with operations in North Korea told TTG Asia e-Daily that they are aware of reports more than 10 years ago that Pyongyang was involved in printing high-quality “supernotes”, but say that they have not come across any fake currency recently.
“If these reports are true, then I think we should probably warn our clients,” said Sabrina Wong, spokesperson for Explore North Korea, based in Dandong.
In mid-June, South Korean media reported that a North Korean national was arrested in Dandong after exchanging US$5 million for Chinese currency at two banks and then depositing the funds.
Counting machines at the banks determined that a number of the notes were fake and the man was arrested and the accounts frozen.
In another case, South Korea’s Yonhap News reported that a Hong Kong-based businessmen was given a US$100 bill as change when he was leaving his hotel in Pyongyang, but only discovered that it was fake after returning to Hong Kong.
A number of other local businessmen have reported being given counterfeit US$100 and US$50 notes in North Korea.
US financial authorities estimate that North Korea started producing fake notes in the 1970s, but began manufacturing notes that were almost indistinguishable from genuine bills in the late 1980s.
Dubbed “supernotes”, Washington estimated that Pyongyang managed to slip at least US$45 million worth of notes into circulation, primarily through its embassies overseas.
But the fake notes began to disappear around a decade ago, after the US introduced new security features, including a three-dimensional security ribbon and microprinting.
North Korea is under stringent UN sanctions and it has been suggested that the regime is seeking ways to obtain hard currency now that many of its traditional money-making operations have been blocked.
