Fake U.S. dollars traded at mountain resort in N. Korea, lawmaker says

SEOUL, Oct. 5 (Yonhap) -- Fake U.S. bills were traded at a South Korean-developed
resort near a scenic North Korean mountain, a ruling party lawmaker said Sunday.

A total of 62 counterfeit U.S. notes, including 61 US$100 bills, were discovered
at the Mount Geumgang resort before 2007, said Rep. Lee Jeong-hyun of the ruling
Grand National Party (GNP).
The lawmaker cited information obtained from Seoul's Unification Ministry and
Hyundai Asan Corp., the resort's operator.
The fake U.S. bills were circulated at a duty-free store, a spa and other shops
at the resort site, according to Lee.
The origin of the counterfeit notes is uncertain, but both Hyundai Asan and the
ministry believe the bogus dollars were circulated by South Korean tourists, the
lawmaker said.
"Verifying the speculation is impossible right now," the ministry told Lee.
The U.S. government has long accused North Korea of counterfeiting its currency
notes and passing them off in various countries. North Korea denies the
accusations.
Tours to the mountain resort on the North's east coast, which has been open to
South Korean visitors since 1998, have been suspended since mid-July after a
53-year-old housewife from Seoul, Park Wang-ja, was fatally shot by a North
Korean soldier.
Pyongyang has rejected requests to make a joint investigation into the shooting,
and maintains that Park was responsible for her death as she wandered into a
restricted military area.