North Korea
Klaus W. Bender
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Germany)
The U.S. might owe North Korea an apology, said Klaus W. Bender in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. America has openly accused the communist totalitarian country of counterfeiting U.S. banknotes. Yet an investigation by Interpol, with the cooperation of numerous central banks and currency printers, has found signs that the Americans themselves could be behind the fraud. Turns out the Americans blame the counterfeiting on whichever country they happen to be angry at. In 1989, when the first near-perfect fake $100 bill surfaced in the Philippines, suspicions centered on some of Irans mullahs. Later, Syria was accused, as was Lebanons Hezbollah. Sources in the Interpol investigation told us that any of those candidates is more likely than North Korea, which is so poor that it cannot even produce decent versions of its own currency, the won, much less the kind of supernotes that can fool even currency experts. Those sources allege that the CIA prints the fake notes in a secret facility to fund its covert operations. The U.S counters that it has conclusive proof of North Korean guilt, which it cant reveal for security reasons. Wasnt that the same argument it used about Iraqs weapons of mass destruction?
