EPTHow North Korea gets funds - Page 2
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Telcontar
United Kingdom16710 Posts
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AcidMinded
United States17 Posts
On February 17 2013 03:51 SamsungStar wrote: + Show Spoiler + On February 17 2013 03:38 emythrel wrote: 20 million dollars isn't actually much in terms of size and weight. Whenever they show a million dollars in a briefcase in a film, it never looks like it would in reality. ![[image loading]](http://musiix.webs.com/2558969-stack-of-money--100-dollar-bills.jpg) you are looking at about $50,000 right there. 2 full sized suitcases could easily hold 20million also it could be in bonds rather than in bank notes, or in another currency where they have large denominations and a good exchange rate with US dollar. Nah, I've checked before. You can only fit about $1.5 - $2 million in a normal suitcase. There is a huge diff between 2 million and $50K. Just look at the dimensions of a dollar and briefcase and do the math. And considering the article went on to specifically say N. Korea's making money by doing hard currency transactions, I find it unlikely he was stuffing bonds or bank notes into his suitcase. Just look at the construction of the sentence. I highly doubt he would need to "stuff" bank notes or bonds seeing as it'd be one or two slips of paper. It's strongly implied that he stuffed hard currency in benjamins. And that means I call bs on this whole story. A suitcase is used by people who are travelling, bringing large amounts of clothing, souvenirs, etc., when they're on their journey. Suitcases can fit much more than a simple briefcase. The average briefcase could probably only fit a few hundred thousand dollars inside. Since suitcases come in such wide varieties of shapes and sizes, I could easily see them fitting $20 million in 2 of them. Just think about the hard plastic cases you sometimes see with rollers. Those things could easily fit that amount of money inside. Why are we arguing the physics of fitting money in suitcases when we should be discussing the issue of North Korea essentially becoming the new Mafia state that Italy once was? Who the hell cares about the dimensions of the case they used when we're talking about a country that is smuggling drugs to fund its dictatorship and nuclear warfare agenda? Really, how much do you care about some stupid paper when compared to the threat of a nuclear warhead? | ||
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AnachronisticAnarchy
United States2957 Posts
On February 17 2013 03:42 [Agony]x90 wrote: They ought to just lift every embargo and just allow free trade to N. Korea. I'm sure they have commodities they can sell and the second foreign goods become legal in N. Korea, they'll want more. It's like a cultural take over! A cultural takeover that won't work at all. North Korea is like the real life version of Oceania. You can actually get killed for thoughtcrime over there. Do you honestly think that they'll let themselves lose their stranglehold over the people to some rice and bread? | ||
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Khul Sadukar
Australia1735 Posts
Be interesting if someone made a documentary about this. Doubt they'd ever get footage or ppl on camera though. Also I used to work in a bank and count notes. You'd be surprised how much cash you can cram in a suitcase, especially if their all $100 bills. Not that I ever did that... nope. | ||
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SamsungStar
United States912 Posts
On February 17 2013 04:07 AcidMinded wrote: + Show Spoiler + On February 17 2013 03:51 SamsungStar wrote: + Show Spoiler + On February 17 2013 03:38 emythrel wrote: 20 million dollars isn't actually much in terms of size and weight. Whenever they show a million dollars in a briefcase in a film, it never looks like it would in reality. you are looking at about $50,000 right there. 2 full sized suitcases could easily hold 20million also it could be in bonds rather than in bank notes, or in another currency where they have large denominations and a good exchange rate with US dollar. Nah, I've checked before. You can only fit about $1.5 - $2 million in a normal suitcase. There is a huge diff between 2 million and $50K. Just look at the dimensions of a dollar and briefcase and do the math. And considering the article went on to specifically say N. Korea's making money by doing hard currency transactions, I find it unlikely he was stuffing bonds or bank notes into his suitcase. Just look at the construction of the sentence. I highly doubt he would need to "stuff" bank notes or bonds seeing as it'd be one or two slips of paper. It's strongly implied that he stuffed hard currency in benjamins. And that means I call bs on this whole story. A suitcase is used by people who are travelling, bringing large amounts of clothing, souvenirs, etc., when they're on their journey. Suitcases can fit much more than a simple briefcase. The average briefcase could probably only fit a few hundred thousand dollars inside. Since suitcases come in such wide varieties of shapes and sizes, I could easily see them fitting $20 million in 2 of them. Just think about the hard plastic cases you sometimes see with rollers. Those things could easily fit that amount of money inside. Why are we arguing the physics of fitting money in suitcases when we should be discussing the issue of North Korea essentially becoming the new Mafia state that Italy once was? Who the hell cares about the dimensions of the case they used when we're talking about a country that is smuggling drugs to fund its dictatorship and nuclear warfare agenda? Really, how much do you care about some stupid paper when compared to the threat of a nuclear warhead? Hmm, difference of opinion in word usage between us. I consider the larger ones luggage cases and briefcases/suitcases to be about the same. And stop being a drama queen. You act like a rogue state engaging in illicit activities is some kind of world-shattering event. Long story short, it's not. Guess how America funded its revolution? Guess how they funded lots of wars? Guess how many of its leading families gained their fortunes? Oh, yeah. That's right. Smuggling and war profiteering. On the other hand, when a random N. Korean agent can break the laws of physics and compress matter into an impossibly small space, yes I consider that a far more interesting possibility than another shitty dictatorship trying to get a nuke. | ||
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PassiveAce
United States18076 Posts
On February 17 2013 03:31 SamsungStar wrote: How exactly did Kim Kwan-jin fit TWENTY million dollars into two suitcases? I think breaking the laws of physics is a much more interesting tidbit of news than anything about N. Korea. twenty million dollars in stacked hundreds is much smaller then you would expect. could easily fit into a suitcase. | ||
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krndandaman
Mozambique16569 Posts
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Sea_Food
Finland1612 Posts
On February 17 2013 04:11 SamsungStar wrote: Hmm, difference of opinion in word usage between us. I consider the larger ones luggage cases and briefcases/suitcases to be about the same. And stop being a drama queen. You act like a rogue state engaging in illicit activities is some kind of world-shattering event. Long story short, it's not. Guess how America funded its revolution? Guess how they funded lots of wars? Guess how many of its leading families gained their fortunes? Oh, yeah. That's right. Smuggling and war profiteering. On the other hand, when a random N. Korean agent can break the laws of physics and compress matter into an impossibly small space, yes I consider that a far more interesting possibility than another shitty dictatorship trying to get a nuke. I do not understand why do people like you who do not understand the subject we are talking about here (math) are so eager to argue about it. The size of a 100$ is about 156,0mm*66.3mm*0.11mm= about 1137.7mm^3 This means that 20million worth of them which is 200 000 bills is 1137.7mm^3*200 000= 227 541 600mm^3 = 0,227 541 600m^3 That is little over 8cubic feet which does easily fit in 2 large suitcases | ||
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SamsungStar
United States912 Posts
On February 17 2013 04:22 krndandaman wrote: err.. I can understand you being interested about the practicality of putting the money into a suitcase (I wasn't sure either) but the guy is right man. it's not a difference of opinion in word usage, he gave you the dictionary definition of briefcase. also, a rogue state engaging in illicit activities to avoid UN sanctions is kind of important news. it complicates the situation for the U.S. and other countries because if UN sanctions don't work at all, what will stop NK from becoming a bonafide nuclear weapon state? that is big news. The American Revolution and a lot of its wars were big news/moments in history. Except every country circumvents UN sanctions/rules/regulations in their own way. Most of them are just better at hiding it. This is just another propagandist piece trying to smear North Korea's name. To what end? As if everyone didn't already know PROK was the black sheep of Asia. It's nonsense to keep going in circles on this issue. As long as China props up the regime and no country is willing to exercise military options, nothing is going to change in N. Korea. A bunch of people discussing it on a gaming forum will affect absolutely zero change in the situation nor in anyone's minds. Maybe the avg TLer is vastly less informed on the E. Asia region, but to me this is very, very old news and not worthy of attention. On the suitcase issue, I am happy to say he is right and I misunderstood. I'm just more used to calling suitcases luggage cases. | ||
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BuddhaMonk
781 Posts
On February 17 2013 03:47 Dark_Chill wrote: Sorry to ask a question which may seem stupid to a lot of people, but why exactly are there so many embargos on North Korea? I mean, they are kind of pushing Korea to do a few illegal activities to build up a better economy. This is a good summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Division_of_Korea | ||
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krndandaman
Mozambique16569 Posts
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Skilledblob
Germany3392 Posts
On February 17 2013 04:02 SamsungStar wrote: Ah okay, if it's a translation that makes more sense. He could get it done with duffel bags I'd imagine. Although how on earth would you hide that going through customs? o_0. LOL. diplomats dont go through customs | ||
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SamsungStar
United States912 Posts
To dandaman: I guess to me it's not relevant because it's been going on for so long. Honestly, this counterfeiting, arms selling, laundering money, etc is nothing new. The scale N. Korea's been doing it on is nothing new. It's not like they recently ramped up their illegal activities to finance their nuclear program. They've been like this for decades now. Changes in regime, shifts in policy, new natural resource deposits, breakthroughs in military programs, etc those would be newsworthy to me. But a random report on well-known activities... to me that's just a redundant thread. | ||
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FromShouri
United States862 Posts
On February 17 2013 04:02 SamsungStar wrote: Ah okay, if it's a translation that makes more sense. He could get it done with duffel bags I'd imagine. Although how on earth would you hide that going through customs? o_0. LOL. Same way other people do, extortion or slip em some money. | ||
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radscorpion9
Canada2252 Posts
Anyway I think it is an interesting exercise to think about how much money could be stuffed into a briefcase (adding to the confusion  ). So I like sea_food's post, basically. Sums it all up assuming the math is right. | ||
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Raid
United States398 Posts
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Chilling5pr33
Germany518 Posts
On February 17 2013 08:31 Raid wrote: I like how people are flipping out of a petty $20 million. I know it is a lot of money to one person. But it really isn't all that much money if you consider what you can really do with it as a nation lol... I once read that around 70% of the agriculture areas are used to grow opium i think 90%+ of the military funding comes from there. They sell it to china mainly but i hope not in knowlege of theire legal system. (Thats why people are starving in the streets btw) | ||
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sOda~
United Kingdom441 Posts
On February 17 2013 08:52 Chilling5pr33 wrote: I once read that around 70% of the agriculture areas are used to grow opium i think 90%+ of the military funding comes from there. They sell it to china mainly but i hope not in knowlege of theire legal system. (Thats why people are starving in the streets btw) That's kinda depressing. | ||
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YoucriedWolf
Sweden1456 Posts
So when people say 90% of the worlds heroin is coming from afghanistan they really have no numbers on NK export? | ||
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Shiragaku
Hong Kong4308 Posts
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