Shadow Money Exchangers: North Korea, Office 39, and the Labyrinth of Supernotes (1990s-mid-2000s)

Shadow Money Exchangers: North Korea, Office 39, and the Labyrinth of Supernotes (1990s-mid-2000s)
Behind the scenes, North Korea's acquisition of foreign currency was supported by Office 39 (Room 39), a special agency under the direct control of the Workers' Party. In order to secure the nation's financial resources, this department collected foreign currency through legal and illegal means and established an international money circulation network via bank accounts, casinos, and front companies. According to reports, Office 39 was also involved in drug trafficking, the export of precious metals, and the production and distribution of extremely sophisticated counterfeit dollar bills, or "supernotes.

The super notes were so accurate that the U.S. government issued an official alert, and were the most reproducible of the counterfeit bills actually in circulation. They were printed in North Korea and leaked through diplomatic channels and smuggling networks overseas. In 2005, the U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Banco Delta Asia (BDA) as a sanctioned entity on suspicion of money laundering because of the shadow of Office 39 on one end of this network.

However, the funding channels were not completely cut off after the BDA incident, and Office 39 dispersed funds through local Chinese banks and smuggling routes in the Middle East. Their fund management is a peculiar structure that intersects national strategy and criminal economy, and it has survived and changed its form with each sanction. North Korea's financial black economy is a symbol of the international community confronting the limits of economic sanctions, and at the same time, it is a stark reality that demonstrates the "difficulty of containing the funds.