North Korea offers Thailand 100 million dollar loan (Wizbang)

What could it be for? How about mass transit.

SEOUL, March 14 (Yonhap) -- North Korea has offered a US$100 million loan to Thailand for its mass transit systems despite the deepening economic woes of the impoverished North that depends heavily on international handouts to feed its hungry people, a U.S. source here said Friday.
The amount offered by the communist North could not be independently confirmed, but Thailand's Transportation Minister Santi Prompat last week confirmed there was a loan offer from Pyongyang, according to the Bangkok Post, an English newspaper circulated in the Thai capital.

The Bangkok Post article can be found here.

Anyone besides me and GI at ROK Drop find this loan insane? North Korea is dependent on international aid to feed its population. Another famine, maybe one as bad as the one over ten years ago, could result in a couple million North Koreans starving to death.

On the other hand Thailand better take a close look at that money being loaned them. North Korea is known to counterfeit US currency.

Comments (3)

Now we know what they're do... (Below threshold)

1. Posted by Mikey | March 14, 2008 2:04 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)

Mikey:

Now we know what they're doing with all tht counterfeit money they print. I wonder if it's all in 20's with the same serial number?

Posted on March 14, 2008 14:04

Sounds like North Korea's u... (Below threshold)

2. Posted by Mvargus | March 14, 2008 3:22 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)

Mvargus:

Sounds like North Korea's usual pipelines to send out counterfeit currency have dried up, so they are hoping to pull off this loan using fake currency in order to generate some real currency inflows.

Posted on March 14, 2008 15:22

There is no legal way the P... (Below threshold)

3. Posted by Jim Addison | March 15, 2008 3:24 AM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)

Jim Addison:

There is no legal way the PRK could have accumulated such amounts of foreign currency reserves. They are either trying to figure a counterfeit-or-other-illegal-money-laundering scheme, or just making noise. As others who've negotiated with the regime over the years may have noticed, they can be quite difficult to pin down.

I wish Thailand good luck on getting the cash, but they have to know it will attract very close scrutiny.

Posted on March 15, 2008 03:24