Fake US supernotes find their way to HK
Pyongyang's counterfeit bills are seized from American in transit
The North Korean 'supernotes' that have rattled Washington have arrived in Hong Kong.
A significant quantity of counterfeit US$100 notes were seized by police within the last month from a middle-aged Chinese-American man in transit from Macau, sources close to the investigation said.
The discovery comes ahead of talks in New York this week between North Korean and US officials over Washington's demand that Pyongyang end state-sponsored counterfeiting operations.
North Korea is widely expected to deny any involvement, while insisting upon the lifting of recently imposed economic sanctions over the issue.
Police forces and diplomats across the region have been told by US counterparts in recent weeks that North Korean counterfeiting operations were now a national security issue of the highest importance to Washington.
The man was arrested, but later released after claiming he unwittingly received the notes during a complex business transaction in Macau.
Dozens of seizures of supernotes have been made in the city.
'His story was unusual and very complex, but ultimately it could not be disproved, so he had to be released,' one investigative source said.
The man is understood to have returned to the US.
But the notes were kept and handed to US Secret Service agents who were briefed on the case.
It is understood they included some of the latest highest-quality variants of the notes, similar to ones delivered to Macau for distribution over the past two years.
North Korean counterfeiters have constantly updated the notes following interceptions, making them harder for banks to detect.
The man carried them feathered among a stack of real notes.
Typically, crime syndicates move the notes around the region in bundles of US$50,000 - half of which are fake. They are usually sold for about 50 cents in the dollar.
The Sunday Morning Post last week revealed that US authorities are preparing to formally seize funds held in three accounts in the Lai Chi Kok Road branch of the Chiyu Banking Corporation, a subsidiary of the Bank of China.
The accounts were used by crime syndicates selling the North Korean notes in mid-2004.
It was the first time Hong Kong banks had been publicly linked to the issue, which last year saw the US Treasury Department demand the freezing of accounts at Macau's Banco Delta Asia. The department said the institution was a 'willing pawn' in North Korea's illicit dealings through Macau.
