Let Them Make Won!

Update: Gee, how curious.

Police recovered a briefcase containing a hoard of probably forged United States Treasury bonds worth $500 million during the investigation of a local theft, Seoul’s Gwanak Police Station announced. Police said they are looking into the possible involvement of international crime networks.

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With Seoul questioning why the United States is making such a big deal out of North Korea’s counterfeiting of its currency and saying it “will take no further steps” against it, the Chosun Ilbo asks the right question:

But what if the shoe was on the other foot? If a country hostile to South Korea forged a huge number of our banknotes and circulated them around the world, what should our government do? And if an ostensible ally of ours defended that counterfeiting country, what would we think of that ally?

As if on cue…

The Bank of Korea said yesterday the number of counterfeit bills is rising at an explosive pace, especially around the backstreet gambling districts.

According to the Bank of Korea, 14,311 fake bills have been reported in Korea during the first half of 2006, more than double the 6,345 fake bills reported during the same period last year, and already exceeding the 12,889 bills reported in all of 2005.

In particular, the number of fake 10,000-won bills totaled 9,872 in the first half of 2006, about six times the number from the year previous.

Fake 1,000-won bills also expanded dramatically, to 452 bills in the first six months of this year, from 62 last year.

“Adult gambling places are our major investigative targets,” said a central bank official.
“The fake bills found in gambling establishments amount to 41.2 percent counterfeit bills reported nationwide.”

Increasingly sophisticated image scanning techniques and cutting-edge tools are making the production of such counterfeit money easier than ever.

The report notes that some of those doing the counterfeiting are teens, although I’ll go out on a limb here and state that they’re not responsible for the “explosion” of “sophisticated,” “cutting-edge” counterfeits. My question now is whether Seoul will do what no other nation would do, and cheerfully absorb the losses, or do what any other nation would do, and go after the criminals who are doing this, wherever they are.

If, by any chance, Seoul is willing to allow its currency to be counterfeited, a compromise solution is at hand.
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