From: d.linen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Drugs, Terror and Dud Bills AFR World Drugs, terror and dud bills ... oh dear, leader Kim afr.com.au Sunday, June 18, 2000 By Peter Hartcher When police in Moscow detained a North Korean found exchanging illegally large amounts of US currency, they opened his overcoat to find it stuffed with thousands of crisp, new $US100 bills. The money turned out to be high-quality counterfeit. And when he claimed diplomatic immunity, they checked out his story. They discovered that he was not just a diplomat but a senior aide to the North Korean leader himself, Kim Jong Il, the man known to his people as Dear Leader. The greenbacks are so good because North Korea's Government spent $US10 million ($16.5 million) to buy an intaglio printing press of the same type used by the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing. They've been called "supernotes". The Congressional Research Service estimated last year that Pyongyang was turning out at least $US15 million a year worth of counterfeit US bills. They have been seized in at least nine countries, according to an American crime expert, David Kaplan. This illustrates several things about North Korea. First, its increasing desperation. It once drew crucial economic and strategic support from Moscow. But when the Soviet Union collapsed, Moscow lost interest in sponsoring global communism and in 1995 failed to renew its security agreement with Pyongyang. North Korea was reduced from a client State of Moscow's to a criminal State trying to pass dud currency in the laneways of its one-time ally. And it's not just counterfeiting. North Korea's Government exports an entire supermarket of illegal drugs to raise hard currency. Japanese Customs found a methamphetamine shipment in 1988 that had a street value of $US170 million - equal to a third of all legal North Korean exports for the year. It is sometimes said that the Russian State has been taken over by mafia interests. But in North Korea, "the State is the mafia", according to the former American ambassador to Seoul, James Lilley. But even State-organised crime was not enough to compensate for the absence of a functional economy. North Korea's people have been suffering from famine for four years. China stepped in to keep North Korea from collapsing entirely, supplying cheap oil, coal and grain. But China, itself well advanced in the transformation from a command economy to a market one, has been increasingly impatient with Pyongyang's obduracy. China pressed Dear Leader hard to start opening the country to trade. Left without any choice, he finally agreed to meet his counterpart from the south, Kim Dae Jung. Second, it tells us how closely the Dear Leader supervises his regime's illegal activities. The office responsible for illicit exports, Workers Party Bureau 39, was established under the direct control of Kim Jong Il. Likewise, he is thought by intelligence agencies in Seoul and Washington to have been personally involved in organising his regime's most horrendous acts of terrorism. These include the 1987 mid-air bombing of Korean Air Lines flight 858 that killed 115 people and the 1983 bombing in Burma of a helicopter carrying four South Korean cabinet ministers. So it is truly stunning to see him turn so abruptly from bombs to bouquets in dealing with South Korea. The rapprochement between the two Kims that occurred in Pyongyang this week began with a handshake, moved on to hand-holding in the back of the official limousine, and ended with a bear hug. For two countries that remain technically at war, this is quite extraordinary. The summit promises much change. First, it reduces the risk of war in one of the world's tinderboxes. Second, it improves the chances that the criminal terrorist regime can be brought into the community of civilised States. Third, it promises to create a new wave of economic vigour on the Korean peninsula if North and South can manage economic integration. South Korea has big, rich companies that want to build factories in North Korea, where labour is very cheap and very well trained. But it also promises to usher in a whole new era of competition between the great powers. How? South Korea's former foreign minister, Han Sung-joo, now a professor at Korea University, published an essay in Friday's Korea Herald in which he made three key points. In summary: One, the rapprochement will probably weaken the position of the US on the Korean peninsula. This is because Seoul will have increasing difficulty explaining the need for the US military bases in South Korea, where Uncle Sam has 37,000 troops. Their future must now be in doubt. Two, it improves China's position. China orchestrated the summit: Han says it is "on the centre stage in Korean affairs". Further, China does not want North Korea, a neighbour, to collapse. It wants to keep it as a friendly buffer State. But it does not want to keep propping it up either. If North Korea can now open itself to trade, it will grow stronger - a buffer still, but not so much of a drain. Three, it sends Japan and Russia scrambling for a say in the evolution of the new reality on the peninsula. Japan will buy a place at the table with aid and investment. And Russia is sending its President, Vladimir Putin, to Pyongyang next month to try to recover the friendship. So if Moscow and the world are now coming to Pyongyang, there should be less need for Pyongyang to send its officials, crammed with counterfeit money, drugs and terrorist intent, to Moscow and the world. <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html <A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
