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Comment by h2odragon | Hacker News Reader

They are circulating in places beyond the borders, I assume. We let North Korea print their own$100 bills for years as a form of off the books aid, but once that stopped the underworld needed someone to provide the currency.

Remember the pallets of cash being sent to Iraq?

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I had to Google the north korea thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdollar

TIL. Thanks!

I'd just note a full read of the article shows that the origin of the bills is apparently quite murky and North Korea is just one of several accused sources. Israel blames Syria, some US media blames the CIA. Nothing is proven and nothing is certain.

>"blames the CIA"

I cannot believe people would dare suggest that such an upstanding organization would do such a thing. For shame! /s

The most interesting part of that article was this:

> On 21 December 2011, the Irish High Court dismissed the US application for Garland's extradition,[4][25] as the alleged offence took place in Ireland and was therefore not subject to extradition.

I wonder why the UK doesn't have that clause but Ireland does?

> We let North Korea print their own $100 bills for years as a form of off the books aid

That's very hard to believe. Citation needed!

See previous "Super Bill" Wikipedia link comment.

It happened/may still be happening for all we know.

The wikipedia article could in no way be summarized as "we let Korea print $100 bills". A first sentence is "A superdollar (also known as a superbill or supernote) is a very high quality counterfeit United States one hundred-dollar bill,[1] alleged by the U.S. Government to have been made by unknown organizations or governments". The body of article follows this. Only dubious allegation that North Korea (among several groups) print them and no allegations that the US allowed this.

Link if it gets lost: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdollar

which part? The 'we let' them part? or the fact that NK is able to print?

I am having trouble finding the 'let them' part. I see plenty of allegations. I just wanted to find out when the US was 'off the books aiding' North Korea.

Well, it's like saying "we let organized crime run rampant", implying there's a choice to stop it.

Which I now realize might be true...

Outside hot-war which would result in massive casualties in SK, there is very little more that can be done to NK...

So there being no choice is probably correct in this case. At least with other countries there is some ways pressure them, with NK not too much, and not for measly sums of money involved.

It's also ridiculously hard to get spies inside of North Korea. Covert action is incredibly difficult. Imagine trying to train a South Korean to blend in when they are a foot taller due to sufficient nutrition.

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