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Forget about the threat posed by North Korea?s missile program. It?s already scoring damaging hits on the west with what?s known as the ?superdollar? – an almost perfect counterfeit US$100 that the rogue nation has been producing by the million and dumping on the world currency market.

One estimate puts the amount Nth Korea makes from counterfeiting more than US$100 million a year.

In November the US put a range of financial sanctions in place against North Korea after the US Treasury revealed it had been using a bank in Macau to put counterfeit currency into circulation. According to US Treasury the bank, the Banco Delta Asia was ?a willing pawn for the North Korean government to engage in corrupt financial activities?.

The bank, which had links to the North Korean regime stretching back two decades, had accepted large deposits of counterfeit US currency and put them into circulation. The bank had also been used for laundering the proceeds of drug smuggling and counterfeit cigarette sales carried out by front companies set up by the North Korean government, according to the US Treasury.

Shortly after the revelations the Macau Government stepped in and placed administrators in the bank to ensure all connections with North Korea were cut.
North Korea broke off international nuclear disarmament talks in November in what was seen as retaliation for the US?s sanctions over its counterfeiting and money laundering.

It was also revealed late last year that a Taiwanese national arrested in the US on charges of dealing in counterfeit bills had disclosed to the FBI that North Korea was also using Chinese organised crime groups to distribute its Read more…