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What is the real story behind the supernotes (update)?

Published
by
Jack
on January 10, 2008
in Defectors, Economy, Humanitarian Topic, North Korea, Questions To Readers, ROK and United States
. 3 Comments

Update: One Free Korea has a much better commentary on this story and is well worth the read.
Supernote?

There have been questions and charges raised regarding the so-called supernotes that supposedly came out of North Korea. I do not know the validity of these charges because I am not a currency expert. However, there are two articles today that may raise doubts. Apparently, according to one article by AZCentral.com:

WASHINGTON - Two years ago, as he was ratcheting up a campaign to isolate and cripple North Korea’s dictatorship financially, President Bush accused the communist regime there of printing phony U.S. currency.

“When someone is counterfeiting our money, we want them to stop doing that. We are aggressively saying to the North Koreans just that - don’t counterfeit our money,” Bush said on Jan. 26, 2006.

If I recall correctly, I think one of the reasons for the frozen cash ($25 million) was because of the counterfeiting and money laundering. That is understandable. In return to start disabling the Yongbyon reactor, North Korea wanted that money back. So the United States released the money with some minor complications, but the DPRK did get it. As usual, North Korea keeps moving the goal posts, but will throw a fit if others do it real or imagined. Several posts have covered this already, so that is not news.

However, a 10-month McClatchy Newspapers investigation on three continents has found that the evidence to support Bush’s charges against North Korea is uncertain at best and that the claims of the North Korean defectors cited in news accounts are dubious and perhaps bogus. One key law-enforcement agency, the Swiss federal criminal police, has publicly questioned whether North Korea is even capable of producing “supernotes,” counterfeit $100 bills that are nearly perfect except for some practically invisible additions.

Huh? How is that so? I did read an article a while back regarding the question regarding the supernote producing capability (based on their own currency being very low quality), but in my mind, that does not prove a lot. I cannot find the link, but I will post it once I do find it. But to see more information on it, you can see this link (PDF). Personally, I do not doubt supernotes exist, and I also do not doubt North Korea produced counterfeit notes because they are well known for producing other things like pharmaceuticals, cigarettes and other things for quick cash. After all, any way to make money is a good thing for a collapsed economy. However, there is a story suggesting a defector may have been telling stories:

Many of the administration’s public allegations about North Korean counterfeiting trace to North Korea “experts” in South Korea who arranged interviews with North Korean defectors for U.S. and foreign newspapers.

The defectors’ accounts, for example, were cited prominently in a lengthy July 23, 2006, New York Times magazine story that charged North Korea with producing the sophisticated supernotes.

The McClatchy investigation, however, found reason to question those sources. One major source for several stories, a self-described chemist named Kim Dong-shik, has gone into hiding, and a former roommate, Moon Kook-han, said Kim is a liar out for cash who knew so little about American currency that he didn’t know whose image is printed on the $100 bill. (It’s Benjamin Franklin.)

The Secret Service, the Federal Reserve Board and the Treasury Department all declined repeated requests for interviews for this story.

(Link mine) Hm, that is interesting, but that does not mean the entire story regarding the supernotes may be bogus:

Although banks around the world are still seizing supernotes, the Bush administration is no longer publicly accusing North Korea of producing them and has dropped the subject from talks on halting North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program, according to State Department officials.

This story seems a bit slanted, but reading in between the noise, it seems there may be more questions than answers regarding the supernotes. So the question I have for you readers is, if a defector claiming to make these notes is lying (he obviously was if he does not know the person on the bill), what is the real story behind the notes?

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Propaganda Time!

Published
by
Jack
on January 9, 2008
in Cult Of Personality, North Korea, Video and wtf
. 3 Comments

It is that time yet again, and we look at the continuation of the year 1994. This does not make a lot of sense because some of the footage is clearly older, but as with everything north Korea, how is anything clear?

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The path to collapse: China to step in (Full PDF available)?

Published
by
Jack
on January 8, 2008
in Diplomacy, Interesting reading, News, North Korea, Nukes, Other Regimes, Speculation, The region and United States
. 0 Comments

ChinaThere has been speculation and I have speculated along with many others if the government should finally implode or explode. We do know the economy already collapsed a while ago, and the DPRK has been dependent on aid to keep the regime going. We also know it is hanging by a thread, and numerous reports from defectors and elsewhere has suggested the dire situation in North Korea. One of the speculations is once the regime is finally gone, who would take over, what plans are in place and the long term goals of the North if it should suddenly topple. One of the more well known speculations is China would step in. While not all agree with it, I think we can all agree China does have some vested interest in North Korea pre- and post-collapse. However, I do not have a crystal ball, so it is very hard to say what the future may bring. Whatever the case, sudden collapse will be painful and a mess. I cannot see it any other way.

Continue reading ‘The path to collapse: China to step in (Full PDF available)?’

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Daily Press Briefing Jan. 04, 2008: North Korean declaration

Published
by
Jack
on January 6, 2008
in Diplomacy, News, North Korea, Other Topics, Politics, United States and Video
. 0 Comments

Here is the Daily Press Briefing Jan. 04, 2008 with the U.S. Department of State. Sean McCormack gives the press conference:

Full transcript here

QUESTION: On North Korea, the — I just watched a response to their foreign ministry saying that they’ve already made this — about (inaudible)?

MR. MCCORMACK: Right. Well, the first thing I’ll note about what they said is that they are committed to the six-party process. That is, I think, the kicker line in their statement and there is every evidence that they are still committed to the six-party process and are moving forward with the implementation of this phase of the agreement as was outlined back in October.

So disablement continues. They have yet to produce a declaration. Would we have wished they had produced a declaration by now? Absolutely, and when I say “we,” all the other five members of the six-party talks. Chris Hill, when he was in Pyongyang and Sung Kim, when he was in North Korea, talked to them about the importance of producing a full and complete declaration. The Chinese have and I know others have as well. We’re going to continue doing that. We want to see this as soon as possible, but we’re not going to sacrifice fullness and completeness in the interest of time.

But the North Koreans need to get about the business of completing this declaration. It’s important to the process. It is another data point that will indicate that they are, in fact, serious about denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, which is, of course, the objective of the six-party talks. So it proceeds. It is not — would we have wished that it had gone faster? Yes. Part of what Chris Hill is going to do in his tour in Northeast Asia as well as to Moscow is talk about this, talk about it with the other members of the six-party talks and urge them to do what they can to encourage the North Koreans to produce a full and complete declaration.

QUESTION: Is he in Tokyo today or is he en route?

MR. MCCORMACK: He left today. He left the United States today, so — I don’t have his schedule in front of me right now. I went through it yesterday.

QUESTION: Are you suggesting that there’s something about Hawaii that has changed?

MR. MCCORMACK: No, no.

QUESTION: Is it no longer a part of the United States?

MR. MCCORMACK: All right, I left that (inaudible) there.

QUESTION: He left Washington today?

MR. MCCORMACK: He left Washington today. I think — what did I say, he left here today?

QUESTION: You said he left the United States today.

MR. MCCORMACK: Touché, Matt. There we are.

QUESTION: Sean, is the Bush Administration emphasis on this complete and correct declaration, because what they showed you originally wasn’t complete and correct? I mean, it’s — you keep saying it has to be complete and correct –

MR. MCCORMACK: Right.

QUESTION: — leads one to assume, well, maybe what they originally showed you wasn’t complete and correct.

MR. MCCORMACK: Well, look, I know Chris talked to them about this when he was up there and we have had several conversations, as have others about the declaration and I’m not going to get into the specifics of the back and forth, but the fact is they haven’t turned in a final declaration yet. They’re going to turn that in to the Chinese as chair, conveners of the six-party meetings and we don’t have that yet. We look forward to a full and complete declaration. We also look forward to their completing the disablement phase up at Yongbyon. That is moving forward and there is good progress on that.

I just have to emphasize to everybody, when you’re looking at this process, if — while we all wish that these diplomatic processes would unfold as we had planned them, sometimes they don’t. And part of the reasons why they are not right now is we are breaking new ground in terms of what we’re doing, in terms of disabling Yongbyon and in terms of working with North Korea in the six-party talks to get a full, complete picture of their nuclear program, not something that has ever been done before.

So that is why, when you say, “Well, it hasn’t been done by December 31st, what are you going to do,” and we say, well, we’re going to keep working on it within a reasonable period of time, that’s the reason why, because we’re breaking new ground here. This hasn’t been done before. But all of that said, none of what we’re doing is lowering the bar. The North Koreans made certain commitments. We expect them to live up to those commitments. We as well as the other members of the six-party talks made commitments and we are going to fulfill those commitments. It’s going to be action in return for action.

Yeah.

QUESTION: Is Mr. Hill going to meet with President Lee in Seoul? Is that on the agenda?

MR. MCCORMACK: I don’t have his list of meetings for you. We’ll try to detail those for you if we can.

Hmmm, so it will be more wait and see. Gotcha.

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North Korean oddities: Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum

Published
by
Jack
on January 6, 2008
in Cult Of Personality, Google Earthing, History, Kim Il Sung, Korean War, North Korea, Video, propaganda and wtf
. 0 Comments

War MuseumNo tour of the DPRK is complete without stopping by the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum in Pyongyang. I did a little research on it, and while there is not a huge amount of information on it, I will post what I can regarding it. For those that have visited this oddity, please feel free to add your own thoughts, experiences and corrections to this posting, please do so.

On the right is the Google Earth image of the museum, and you can see the little details and a bird’s eye view of it. There are other pictures of the inside, but since almost all the pictures are copyrighted by the authors of the pictures, I will simply link the images to the page and not re-upload them here. If you are the author of some of these images and grant permission for DPRK Forum to use them, I would be grateful, and please say so in the comments. Otherwise, you will have to see them over there. However, there is a nice YouTube video of the tour, but this particular video not show the rotating war room:

Typarker gives some account of this museum:

In North Korea, the Korean War is called the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War, and our next stop was the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum. The museum was interesting in that it was a physical representation of all of the anti-American feelings we War Museum had heard since being there. It was definitely worth seeing, but completely filled my quota of Korean-War-from-a-North-Korean-perspective talks I’d need for a while.

That is all fair and good, but what is the history behind this thing? I dug around, and it was very difficult to find. There is a brief description on the KCNA page:

Pyongyang, August 17 (KCNA) — 45 years have passed since the victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum was established. The museum systematically shows the enduring feats of the President Kim Il Sung in leading the Fatherland Liberation War (June 1950-july 1953) to victory. Its predecessor, the fatherland liberation war memorial,was opened to public on August 17, 1953, and expanded into the present victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum in April Juche 63 (1974). It is located on the Pothong River. It has 80 odd rooms. On display there are materials showing the feats the President performed in the army building during the anti-Japanese revolutionary struggle and the democratic revolution. Exhibited are data on military achievements made by all arms and services of the Korean People’s Army on several stages of operations during the Fatherland Liberation War and materials showing the struggle of people in the rear. Also exhibited are materials on the brutal atrocities of the U.S. imperialists and their defeat. The museum has over 70 semi-panoramic pictures and model boards, among them halls with a cyclorama on the operation of liberating Taejon and a semi-panoramic picture on the battle of attack on height 351. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the War Victory Day, the monument to victory in the Fatherland Liberation War was built on a large scale in the vicinity of the museum. War veterans are now working as lecturers at the museum. The museum has been visited so far by nearly 17 million people since its opening.

That is some information about the history, but since this is the KCNA, of course, propaganda is interwoven. So much for fair and balanced reporting. If other readers have information on the history of this oddity, please let me know.

Some links to pictures and accounts:

Account 1

Pictures of a trip to the DPRK including the war museum

KFA pictures

Account 2

Account 3 This part was pretty funny to read:

[...]
The War Museum in Pyongyang serves to promulgate the North Korean version of the war. We were met by a stout museum guide who, like almost all of her colleagues in NK, spoke no English (our guides translated) and seemed to be delivering a memorized monologue. The tour took about 2 hours, but I think it could’ve easily have been shortened to one hour if they just said ‘Kim Il Sung’ instead of `The Supreme Leader Generalissimo Kim Il Sung’ and `America’ instead of `The Imperialist American Aggressor’.
[...]

There are other accounts, but a more comprehensive history may be a little better. On the other hand, such information may be a little hard to come by.

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Matching the South with the North and other news

Published
by
Jack
on January 6, 2008
in Diplomacy, Economy, Humanitarian Topic, News, North Korea, Nukes, ROK, Speculation and United States
. 0 Comments

The game continues with the new president of the ROK to entice the reclusive leader of the socialist paradise to come clean and get some goodies. So far, Pyongyang remains defiant. If the North will accept the deal or not is one thing, but if this is talking billions to help shore up the already crumbled economy, maybe it is time for Kim to realize his regime survival depends on such outside help. The downside to all of this is, it means the leader has to make a full declaration which most likely will never come. Does this mean the outside will succumb to a partial list? It is hard to say how the North will play the cards, but it is very clear the North will drag its heels for as long as it can. So far, not much has been done. According to this story:

[...]

He said that as part of President-elect Lee’s plan to persuade the North to abandon its nuclear weapons, the next administration will establish an international cooperation fund of up to $40 billion.

(Emphasis mine) That is a lot of money for the impoverished North, and the plan is the following:

Spokesman Lee says the funds would be raised with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to support the impoverished North’s economic growth. He did not name specific projects, but experts say the fund would first be used to rebuild tattered North Korean infrastructure such as railroads, highways, and shipping facilities.

The question is, with all that money, will there be oversight to see where this money really goes? That is pretty doubtful because it is so difficult if not impossible to have an account of what the Dear Leader does with the money once he does get it. Also, the process of getting the North in line with the South will be a very expensive and long process. I really doubt this is an attempt to get the North in line with the South as much as it may be to keep the regime afloat for a little while longer. It has been that way for decades anyway. On the other hand, until such action has taken place and the North responds to the incentives, it is very difficult to know how it will play out. I am going to guess that amount of cash is going to be very difficult to resist considering the serious quagmire of the collapsed Juche economic plans. At this stage, it is damage control and has been that way for a pretty long time. Both sides have to be aware of this,especially Kim.

Continue reading ‘Matching the South with the North and other news’

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Play it again, Kim Jong Il

Published
by
Jack
on January 4, 2008
in News and North Korea
. 2 Comments

Kim does not get his way, so he makes a temper tantrum via state run media:

“(We) will further strengthen our war deterrent capabilities in response to U.S. attempts to initiate nuclear war,” the prickly state’s communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary.

As another commenter said:

It would have been news event only if the DPRK had actually met the deadline.

I have to agree, and this “new threat” is not news either. Kim knows he will get his way if he continues to play the cat and mouse game and does his usual carrot on a stick routine with the international community. No surprise either the paranoid Kim Jong Il makes the usual, boring charge:

“The DPRK (North Korean) people, seeing through to the criminal nature of US imperialists, has already been building up their defence capability,” it said.

“To cope with the mounting US nuclear war manoeuvres, the DPRK will further strengthen its own war deterrence.”

Yawn. You just do not want to declare your programs because not only have you been caught red-handed with uranium, you have been balking and asking for more aid in return for little or no action. Sorry, I do not consider taking the rods out as something profound. All you need to do is a few months to a year to get it going again. I will consider it progress once a wrecking ball crew is at Yongbyon. Take heart, it is an outdated piece of crap anyway.

Will Kim Jong Il finally declare his weapons and past mideeds? I doubt it, at least from a full declaration if any at all. Perhaps to keep the heat off his back, the declaration may come piecemeal. We will have to wait and see. However, it is the same tired song and dance of disengagement.

See Left Flank See DPRK Studies

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If you cannot get enough DPRK propaganda…

Published
by
Jack
on January 2, 2008
in Cult Of Personality, Economy, Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il, News, North Korea, Policy Elites, Politics, propaganda and wtf
. 0 Comments

Then I have to suggest you take a gander at http://dprk-economy.com. The web site is colorful and sort of tries to keep up with the times. Unfortunately, there are some bugs in it and I have no idea if they will be fixed (such as the header picture is broken in places), but no matter. The content is kind of interesting if you like propaganda:

1. In the bookshop, do not miss the “best sellers” Idle Pig and Japan’s War Crimes-Past and Present (Warning: this automatically downloads a PDF). Of course, one cannot pass one day without the latest mis-adventures of the Dear Leader in the state run periodicals Pyongyang Times and Korea Today. lastly, no DPRK bookstore is complete without the biographies of Kim Jong Il, Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Suk. After all, they are the focus of everything.

2. Next, you need to take a look at the vibrant economy of the Stalinist Utopia. Nothing is broken down, things are getting produced, and they want your investment today! Make sure to take a close look at some of these products: Pyongyang Daesong Tyre Factory, Pyongyang Cosmetics Factory and the Pyongyang Essential Oil Research Centre (they have oil to research?).

3. Look, a more colorful version of the KCNA!

4. Lastly, open your wallets and buy some stuff today! I have no idea if Americans are allowed to buy things, but it sure looks like it. Why not buy a painting, a movie, bearings, or “daily necessities” such as these beautiful boxing gloves (people working the fields and near starvation need these?)!

There is only one question in all of this. Why was this site not launched on the .kp domain? I mean after all, it would make the DPRK really look like it is finally in the 21st century.

Oh wait, never mind.

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Cold War series #5: Korea

Published
by
Jack
on January 1, 2008
in History, North Korea, ROK, United States and Video
. 2 Comments

This is the Korea segment of the Cold War series on Google Video. If this is not allowed to be posted here, please let me know. Otherwise, enjoy:

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…and we end 2007 and start 2008 with no declaration

Published
by
Jack
on January 1, 2008
in News, North Korea and Nukes
. 3 Comments

The deadline passes and now we see what happens next. Reuters reports:

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