North Korea Printed Better Dollars Than America. So How Did They Get Caught?

In 1989, the U.S. Secret Service found a fake $100 bill with a problem no counterfeiter had ever had: it was too good. Same cotton-linen paper. Raised ink. It passed the tests banks use. And when experts finally found a way to spot it, it wasn’t a flaw — in a few tiny places, the fake was printed better than the real thing.

That was just the opening move. For years, America threw everything it had at the “superdollar.” The Treasury redesigned the $100 bill for the first time since 1928. The FBI spent years undercover and ended the operation with a fake wedding on a yacht. And finally, Washington went after a small bank in Macau — and one press release triggered a bank run, a nuclear standoff, and a $25 million transfer through America’s own Federal Reserve.

Most of the evidence points to Pyongyang: diplomats caught carrying the bills, defectors describing a state factory, and the only company on Earth that makes America’s color-shifting ink quietly cutting North Korea off. But no court ever tested it, and the full evidence is still classified.

So who printed the most perfect counterfeit in history — and how did they finally get caught?

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CHAPTERS

0:00 – Cold Open
1:16 – The Opening Move
3:56 – The Race
6:16 – Inside the Shadow
8:32 – Follow the Bill
10:33 – The Wedding
13:13 – The Laundry
17:33 – Giving It Back
19:36 – Who Really Printed Them?
22:29 – The Opposite Problem

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SOURCES & FURTHER READING

U.S. Department of the Treasury (15.09.2005) — Banco Delta Asia designated under Section 311: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/js2720
U.S. Department of Justice (22.08.2005) — Operation Smoking Dragon / Royal Charm arrests: https://www.justice.gov/archive/opa/pr/2005/August/05_crm_426.htm
Congressional Research Service — North Korean Counterfeiting of U.S. Currency (RL33324): https://www.everycrsreport.com/files/20090612_RL33324_f46f46321617264864af7f2874b7924b04bbb376.html
INTERPOL (2006) — Supernote summit on U.S. dollar counterfeiting: https://www.interpol.int/en/News-and-Events/News/2006/INTERPOL-holds-Supernote-summit-to-address-US-dollar-counterfeiting
Federal Reserve — day of issue for the redesigned $100 note: https://uscurrency.gov/media/news/federal-reserve-announces-day-issue-redesigned-100-note
CBS News — Supernotes Revisited: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supernotes-revisited
BBC Panorama — North Korea’s counterfeit dollars: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/3819345.stm
Radio Free Asia (21.10.2024) — North Korea orders serial numbers recorded over fake dollars: https://www.rfa.org/english/korea/2024/10/21/north-korea-counterfeit-money-dollars-100-china/
Wikipedia — Superdollar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdollar