Post by Moses on Dec 23, 2005 21:23:35 GMT -5
Seoul Official Raps U.S. Envoy for N.Korea Forgery Claim
A high-ranking government official on Friday called on U.S. Ambassador to Korea Alexander Vershbow to restrain himself following repeated remarks by the envoy that there is "evidence" that counterfeit U.S. dollar bills found in South Korea this year came from North Korea.
The official told reporters there was a need for scientific analysis of the quality of paper and ink used in the bogus bills to find out where they came from. This was the job of the U.S. Treasury, not an issue an ambassador should discuss, he said. The official said the press should have pointed out that Vershbow's remarks were precipitous.
Given how secretive the North Korean regime is, it is impossible to corroborate the U.S. claim as long as Pyongyang denies it, the official said. He warned that prolonged debate over the forgery issue would only make the situation worse, comparing it to U.S. claims that North Korea has a highly enriched uranium program, which prompted North Korea to break off talks.
The official urged core U.S. policymakers to lead a rational discussion on how to break the impasse. He also said the government must resolve North Korea's nuclear weapons issue first and then try to settle the forgery claim within the established framework. If the U.S. makes a conciliatory gesture, North Korea will follow suit, he predicted, but at the moment Washington was pushing Pyongyang too hard.
The official said some experts believed the forgery allegation was retaliation from neocons in the U.S. administration for an accord reached in six-party denuclearization talks in September. "Conviction has replaced reason" in U.S. policymaking, he said. "The neocons believe we should either remove or transform dictators." He said Vershbow, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were all "experts in regime transformation" now grouped in a team dealing with Korean Peninsula affairs.
Vershbow earlier on Friday told a breakfast forum hosted by the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation the U.S. had "forensic evidence" that counterfeit dollar bills found in South Korea early this year were produced by North Korea. [maybe they will put that German in charge who trumps up cases for the neocons like the Hariri Assasination]
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