Banking in Vietnam

Now you know who really won the Vietnam War

Vietnam is acting on a U.S. request to see whether North Korea has opened accounts in several Vietnamese banks. If it finds that the money in these accounts came from illegal activities, Vietnam says it will shut the accounts down.

Vietnamese State Bank governor Le Duc Thuy said Tuesday that a number of Vietnamese banks are investigating accounts allegedly belonging to North Korea.

Thuy says U.S. Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism Stuart Levey requested the investigations when he visited Vietnam last week.

Washington accuses Pyongyang of using banks to launder money from illegal operations, and the Bush administration is moving to punish financial institutions that do business with North Korea.

It’s already been done (Via. The Marmot’s Hole)

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 (Yonhap) — Vietnamese banks have already closed down North Korean accounts over the past few weeks, most likely forcing Pyongyang to move its money to its last remaining haven, Russia, said Peter Beck, head of the International Crisis Group’s Seoul office, on Tuesday.

Beck said Nigel Cowie, general manager of North Korea’s Daedong Credit Bank in Pyongyang, e-mailed him last week and said Vietnamese banks have shut down Daedong’s and other North Korea-held accounts.

Daedong expected such a move by Vietnam after U.S. Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey visited Hanoi early last month, and had moved its funds elsewhere, Cowie said in the e-mail.

You know you have a problem when a second communist country does not want your business.