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N Korea rails against US charges

North Korea insisted yesterday that it wasn't involved in counterfeiting US dollars and repeated calls for Washington to lift financial sanctions to resolve the international standoff over the communist nation's nuclear weapons program.

North Korea has responded harshly to the sanctions, imposed for alleged illegal activities including counterfeiting and money laundering. The North denies the allegations and says it won't return to six-nation nuclear talks until the sanctions are lifted.

"No matter how often American political imbeciles may orchestrate farces of every form at their back parlor, it will only reveal the moral vulgarity of the Bush group and further deteriorate the standoff over the nuclear issue," the North's official Korean Central News Agency said yesterday.

"The only way for the Bush group to get rid of its present deplorable position is to lift its financial sanctions against [North Korea] and sincerely work to find a solution to the problem at the six-party talks," KCNA said.

US Ambassador to South Korea Alexander Vershbow labeled the North a "criminal regime" in remarks last week, saying it was the first government to take part in counterfeiting since Adolf Hitler's Germany. The North said the remarks were tantamount to a declaration of war and called for Vershbow's expulsion.

Vershbow's comments have also drawn rebukes from South Korean officials. National Assembly Speaker Kim One-ki said yesterday that some of the ambassador's remarks "appeared to have gone too far."

"Our vital issue is to establish a peace mechanism between South and North Korea," Kim told KBS radio. "It is not desirable for an ambassador in a host country to make such remarks that are not helpful."

This week, the US Treasury Department issued another advisory warning of the North's alleged illegal activities. It cautioned US financial institutions to "take reasonable steps to guard against the abuse of their financial services by North Korea, which may be seeking to establish new or exploit existing account relationships."

In September, Washington placed sanctions on Macau-based Banco Delta Asia SARL after the bank allegedly helped the North distribute counterfeit currency and engage in other illicit activities. The following month, the US sanctioned eight North Korean companies it said acted as fronts for proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

A North Korean defector who claims he served 14 years as a special forces soldier said the North's counterfeiting activities were widely known within the country. Lim Chun-yong, who came to the South in 2000, said he knew of the counterfeiting operations because one of the key moneymaking factories was in Manpo City in Jagang Province, where his unit was based.

"Counterfeiting of US dollars is an issue all North Koreans are aware of," Lim said yesterday.

A South Korean intelligence official confirmed the location of the counterfeiting factory, near the border with China.

"The North sends drugs and counterfeit money to Japan and Thailand through secret routes organized at the state level," the official said on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of his work.
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