Crime & Criminal Justice

It's very possible that the series of U.S. law enforcement actions made the risks and costs too high to North Korea to keep counterfeiting. The first possibility is that they got out of the game. The second is that they got even better at it, and we just haven't caught them yet. [Conducting covert operations with counterfeit U.S. cash] would have the dual benefit of funding North Korea's operations and engaging in economic warfare against the United States. The Secret Service has been unequivocal that the North Korean supernotes are the best in the world.

There’s no due process at all and everybody is handpicked by the regime...They are not independent assessors of people’s guilt or innocence. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind who understands North Korea that the officials are and were seriously upset about [the removal of propaganda]. [Still,] foreigners aren’t usually housed in the same cells as regular North Koreans, and sometimes they are put in better, almost hotel-style places.