Posted on 07/23/2006 9:57:53 PM PDT by HAL9000
China has frozen North Korea's account at the Macao branch of the People's Bank of China, Yonhap News reported Monday.A former ranking U.S. official made the revelation to a lawmaker of South Korea's opposition Grand National Party, according to Yonhap.
Well now, isn't that interesting!
It's sometimes little things like that which most wouldn't notice which determine large situations.
For years, the KorComms have been laundering their counterfeit US hundred dollar bills thru Macao. Sometimes the wind blows ill, Kim Jong.
Maybe some kickbacks didn't arrive as promised.
Wow! Those are some kewl trinkets! I can't decide what to buy, communist propaganda or communist propaganda, or maybe communist propaganda. On the other hand, there's communist propaganda.
And remember, 10% of every purchase goes to purchasing more rocket fuel!
Chinese bank said to freeze N.K. accounts for currency counterfeiting
SEOUL, July 24 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is suspected of having printed fake Chinese currency, which prompted the Bank of China (BOC) to freeze all of its North Korean accounts in an apparent retaliation, a South Korean legislator asserted on Monday.
Quoting a number of unidentified U.S. officials, Rep. Park Jin of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) said the freezing of North Korean accounts at the BOC is tantamount to virtual imposition of sanctions by Beijing on the North.
"I understand the North is even more frustrated because this means China is in fact imposing sanctions on North Korea," the opposition lawmaker told Yonhap News Agency in a telephone interview.
Park has just returned to the country after a three-day trip to Washington along with 12 other ruling and opposition party legislators.
The GNP lawmaker claimed Washington may have been aware of the Chinese bank's move as early as late last year when its Treasury Department imposed sanctions on a Macau bank suspected of circulating counterfeit U.S. dollars printed in the North.
"I suspect (the United States) did not announce the part related to China considering the sensitivity of the issue," Park said.
He later claimed Beijing may be working with Washington to crack down on Pyongyang's alleged counterfeiting of Chinese yuan.
"Following U.S. dollars, North Korea is also counterfeiting China's currency, the yuan," Park said during a meeting of the National Assembly Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee.
The claim, if found true, is expected to further complicate the stalled negotiations over North Korea's nuclear weapons program as the United States has been looking to China to convince the North to return to the multilateral talks.
Pyongyang has been staying away from the talks since November, shortly after Washington imposed sanctions on the Macau bank, Banco Delta Asia.
The communist state says it will not return to the nuclear talks until Washington lifts the financial sanctions.
South Korea's top official on North Korean affairs, Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok, said he was unaware of the allegation.
The government "does not have any accurate information" on the issue, he told the Assembly committee.
The nuclear talks involve the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia.
The account was probably overdrawn anyway.
No more quick trips to the ATM?
I wonder if tghis is in retaliation for the fact that when the Chinese recently sent aid by train, the Koreans took the aid and kept the trains too!~
Bank of China freezes N. Korea assets in Macau- US
http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2006-07-25T052717Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-260889-1.xml&archived=False
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