Posted on 07/24/2006 5:11:02 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
(LEAD) 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.
China may be afraid of what migh happen after N. Korean regime goes down. However, dragging it feet and letting N. Korean crisis degenerate further would eventually lead to the disaster much worse than the one when China lets the regime fall now. I mean disaster to China.
A related earlier thread:
China freezes North Korea account at People's Bank in Macao: report ^
China plays moron with N. Korea because China hates U.S./Japan more, ping!
Just last week, I read the story about Chinese trains hauling charity food shipments to NK, and the NK's kept the trains! How do they expect to get more shipments? Idiots!!!
They are definitely pushing the envelope. Nobody has pushed it that far in recent history, I suspect.
bump
They'll get the food by truck. But they'll keep the trucks. Then they'll get it by boat. And keep the boats. And then planes.
Sorry, I don't buy it.
The train, the arrest of NK's official, and now counterfeiting. I think it's all a careful campaign to keep us from thinking that China is backing NK.
What idjits! Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!
Wholeheartedly agree. China wants some kind of confrontation with the US, or better yet, US acquiesance (agreeing to direct one on one negotiations with the illegal Pyongyang regime) and the US isn't going to play along. Unless a Clinton gets back in the White House, of course.
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