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| 北, 세계 최대 가짜 담배 생산집단/(미래한국)(영문 -월스트맅저널) |
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北, 세계 최대 가짜 담배 생산집단/(미래한국)(영문 -월스트맅저널) 다음은 헌법을 생각하는 변호사모임의 홈페이지 http://www.law717.org 의 국내보도 자료편에 영문 기사도 있는 기사임. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 다음은 미래한국신문 홈페이지 http://www.futurekorea.co.kr 에 있는 기사임. 이 기사와 관련이 있는 The Wall Street Journal의 기사는 이 기사 뒤에 올릴 것임. 北, 세계 최대 가짜 담배 생산집단 中國 범죄집단 등과 연계, 유통 최근 북한의 위조지폐 발행과 유통문제로 미국과 북한간의 외교적 긴장이 고조되고 있는 가운데, 북한이 대량의 가짜 담배를 생산해 미국은 물론 국제시장에 유통시키고 있다는 보도가 나와 주목되고 있다. 미국의 월스트리트 저널은 27일자 해설기사에서 미국의 담배제조 회사인 필립모리스가 자사의 상표를 도용한 가짜 담배를 원산지를 자체 수사한 결과 그 원산지가 북한임을 밝혔다고 전했다. ‘말보로’를 생산하는 미국 최대의 담배회사 필립모리스는 자사의 상표를 도용한 가짜들로 연간 수십억 달러의 손해를 보고 있는 것으로 알려져 있다. 따라서 필립모리스사는 가짜 담배를 유통시키는 집단이 누구인지를 밝혀내기 위해 계속해서 수사를 벌여 왔다. 필립모리스사는 미국 전역의 상점에 직원들을 파견해 그곳에서 팔리고 있는 담배가 진짜인지 가짜인지를 조사했는데, 이 과정에서 뉴욕과 오클라호마, 로스앤젤레스 등 1300여개 지역에서 가짜 담배를 발견했다. 필립모리스사는 이 가짜 담배의 원산지를 찾아내기 위해 전직 정보기관 요원들을 고용해 수사를 벌인 결과 그 원산지가 북한 나진 이였다고 월스트리트 저널은 전했다. 지난해 필립모리스사가 미국 정부에 제출한 보고서에 따르면 범죄조직원으로 가장한 필립모리스의 비밀요원이 북한으로 들어가 가짜 담배를 사려 했는데, 이 과정에서 북한 가짜 담배 생산자들은 위조지폐도 함께 구입하겠느냐는 제안을 했던 것으로 알려졌다. 필립모리스사는 이를 즉각 미국당국에 알렸고 결국 가짜담배 원산지를 캐내려던 필립모리스사 측은 우연치 않게 북한의 위조지폐 유통도 밝히게 됐다고 월스트리트 저널은 보도했다. 월스트리저널의 보도에 따르면 북한은 연간 20억갑에 달하는 위조담배를 생산할수 있고, 위조 담배와 다른 위조상품으로 벌어 들이는 돈은 8천만 달러에서 1억6천만 달러에 이르며, 이 금액은 북한이 합법적으로 수출하는 금액의 8%에서 16%에 이르는 금액으로 추정되고 있다. 필립모리스사의 조사에 따르면 미국내 워싱턴주와 오래건주 캘리포니아와 애리조나 주등 서부 지역과 뉴욕, 버지니아 동부지역 등 약 23개 주에서 북한산 위조담배가 발견된 것으로 전해졌다. 지난해에는 수십 만 갑의 북한산 가짜 담배가 대만과 필리핀 등에서 세관에 의해 압수된 점을 보아 북한산 위조 담배가 전 세계 곳곳에서 유통되고 있음을 알 수 있다. 위조담배의 제조는 북한 나진에서 하고 있지만 주로 중국이나 대만의 범죄집단이 이 공장들을 소유하고 있는 것으로 알려졌다. 이들 국제범죄조직들은 대만과 중국 등 범죄조직들이 소유한 선박들을 동원해 가짜 담배를 미국과 유럽 등에 밀수출하고 있는 것으로 전해졌다. 그런데 전문가들은 북한이 국제 범죄조직들과 밀착 되면서 담배뿐만 아니라 위조달러와 무기 등을 비밀 유통로를 통해 다른 곳으로 반출 할 수 있다는 사실에 더 큰 걱정을 나타내고 있다. 필립모리스사는 어떤 단체나 집단이 필립모리스사의 상표나 포장을 도용할 경우 법적 대응을 하는 것이 원칙이라고 밝힌 상태이다. < 관련 기사 > 對北 금융조치, 長기간-高강도 압박예고 미래한국 2006-01-31 오전 10:35:00 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 다음은 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL의 홈페이지 http://online.wsj.com 에 있는 기사임. Tobacco Firms Trace Fakes To North Korea By GORDON FAIRCLOUGH Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL January 27, 2006; Page B1 In Philip Morris USA's ongoing war against counterfeiters, it was a fairly simple operation: Buy a pack of Marlboros from a corner bodega on Manhattan's Upper East Side to follow up on a tip about contraband cigarettes. But it took until 2005, the year after the pack was purchased, company officials say, before they could trace the artfully counterfeited smokes to one of the world's most isolated countries, North Korea. The communist nation has become a leading source of counterfeit cigarettes -- with the capacity to churn out more than two billion packs a year, tobacco companies say. Philip Morris, a unit of New York-based Altria Group Inc., says over the past several years it has discovered North Korean-made knockoffs of its Marlboro brand in more than 1,300 places, from New York to Oklahoma City, Seattle and Los Angeles. Big cigarette companies, facing billions of dollars in lost revenue, have hired former intelligence and law-enforcement officials, recruited informants inside Asian crime syndicates and even sent agents into North Korea in an effort to stem what they say is a flood of illicit exports. Andre Reiman, a senior vice president of Philip Morris International whose oversees antismuggling programs, said his company is "very concerned to find organized counterfeiting of our products in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea." The scale of the distribution network -- believed to include fleets of ships owned by global organized-crime groups -- has the U.S. government taking a more active role after years of industry pleas to crack down on counterfeit cigarettes. U.S. authorities seized more than a billion fake smokes, many allegedly from North Korea, in California last year as part of an undercover operation targeting Asian smugglers. Millions more packs of bogus Marlboros, Mild Sevens and other cigarettes made in North Korea have been confiscated in Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam and Belize. In a little-publicized 2004 case, three Asian men pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle counterfeit goods and currency, in connection with a scheme to send fake cigarettes, forged $100 bills and knockoff Cialis, an erectile-dysfunction drug made by Lilly ICOS LLC, into the U.S. The cigarettes, a U.S. official says, were made in North Korea. The case started when an undercover investigator working for Philip Morris posed as a buyer looking for counterfeit cigarettes, according to papers filed by the government in federal court in Washington last year. The men took the investigator to a cigarette-making plant on the east coast of North Korea. They also offered to sell the investigator forged U.S. currency, prompting Philip Morris to alert the U.S. Secret Service. In all, the men accepted payments of more than $400,000 for counterfeit cigarettes and currency, prosecutors say. Supplying counterfeit cigarettes has cemented North Korea's ties to crime organizations, giving the country access to a vast smuggling network that could allow it to move almost anything -- from forged U.S. banknotes to weapons -- in or out of the country, U.S. officials say. "Much more dangerous things than cigarettes can flow along these same routes," warns a senior Bush administration official. "The North Koreans could import technology and export strategic goods and weapons. It's a big deal." North Korea has long been accused of counterfeiting U.S. currency. In a press conference yesterday, President Bush said the U.S. was moving aggressively to halt Pyongyang's forgers. "When somebody's counterfeiting our money, we want to stop them from doing that," Mr. Bush said. Washington's efforts, however, have drawn criticism from other capitals, which worry that U.S. moves will keep North Korea from rejoining multilateral talks aimed at ending its nuclear-weapons programs. North Korea denies it engages in counterfeiting or other illicit acts. Its official news agency said last month that "such illegal activities are unimaginable in the DPRK." In a report prepared by a consortium of tobacco companies that includes Altria, Japan Tobacco Inc. and British American Tobacco PLC, and presented to U.S. authorities last year, investigators said that the North Korean regime could be earning $80 million to $160 million in annual payoffs from smugglers alone. Those estimates are equal to roughly 8% to 16% of the total value of annual exports of legitimate goods from North Korea, whose economy collapsed after the fall of the Soviet Union. Profits from suspected state-run counterfeiting operations would likely push that number even higher, say tobacco-company executives. "Counterfeit cigarettes are probably becoming one of their biggest sources of illicit income," says Raphael Perl, an expert on North Korean finances at the Congressional Research Service. Two developments have helped North Korea establish itself in the fake-smokes business. First, major cigarette manufacturers, sued by the European Union and others for allegedly supplying smugglers with cigarettes in an effort to circumvent taxes, have moved to keep their products out of criminals' hands. Second, China has moved aggressively to clamp down on cigarette counterfeiting. Rather than engage in a high-stakes game of cat-and-mouse with the Chinese authorities, makers of high-end counterfeits have instead sought refuge in North Korea. "North Korea is the perfect place," says one tobacco executive. "There's very little scrutiny from outside, and there's no risk of law-enforcement action because it's all sanctioned by the state." One of the main hubs of counterfeiting activity, the tobacco companies say, is Rajin, a run-down port city on North Korea's east coast. More than a decade ago, Pyongyang decided to turn the area into a free-trade zone as part of a United Nations-backed effort to spur economic development in the impoverished communist country and its neighbors. Many of the cigarette factories in Rajin, which use tobacco from China and Vietnam, are owned or financed by Taiwanese and Chinese criminal groups, which smuggle the cigarettes they produce into countries around Asia as well as into the U.S. and Europe, say tobacco executives. North Korean state-owned enterprises, mostly located in or near Pyongyang, the country's capital, also make knockoff cigarettes, the tobacco companies say. The companies say one of these factories is controlled by the internal security service; another is owned by a group with close links to the Communist Party leadership. Some of the smuggling organizations that move the North Korean cigarettes use their own fleets of freighters, tankers and fishing vessels, tobacco-company executives say. Cargos are often shifted to other vessels at sea, in international waters, to mask their origin. In other cases, cigarettes move via a series of small ports. The look of the counterfeits and their packages is also very good, say tobacco executives. Packs of Marlboro seized in Miami even included forged pamphlets urging smokers to visit a Web site to find information about the health dangers of cigarettes and the admonition "Don't Litter" on the side of the box. Executives say packaging is the key to determining which cigarettes are fakes and where they come from. They compare suspect cigarettes to examples from prior raids that have been conclusively tied to a particular source. For example, counterfeiters often don't change the tracking numbers on counterfeit packages. Sometimes, printing flaws give them away. ---- Jay Solomon in Washington contributed to this article. Write to Gordon Fairclough at gordon.fairclough@wsj.com1 URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113830654895857392.html Hyperlinks in this Article: (1) mailto:gordon.fairclough@wsj.com
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