| They keep making excuses, don't they. |
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - South Korea's spy agency said Thursday that North Korea was not currently producing counterfeit currency, apparently contradicting U.S. allegations that have become the latest obstacle in nuclear disarmament talks with the communist country.
The South's National Intelligence Service briefed lawmakers in a closed session amid an escalating standoff between Washington and Pyongyang over the North's purported counterfeiting and other illicit activities that have drawn new U.S. sanctions. During the session with lawmakers on parliament's intelligence committee, the spy agency said North Koreans were arrested in the 1990s for counterfeiting but that it had no evidence of the North making fake money after 1998, said Im Jong-in, a legislator with the ruling Uri Party.
Asked whether the North is currently printing counterfeit money, the agency said: "It's not the case," Im told reporters after the briefing. "North Korea circulated counterfeit currency in the 1990s," National Intelligence Service spokesman Choi Jae-keun told reporters after the briefing. "The government has serious concerns regarding the issue of the North's counterfeiting and is closely following the situation."
President Bush said at a news conference last month that North Korea was counterfeiting U.S. money and was being warned to stop doing so. |