North Korea Owes New York City $156,000 In Parking Tickets

Good luck New York City trying to get this money out of North Korea:

As if the U.S. and North Korea hadn’t had enough bilateral tensions, outstanding parking fines from North Korea’s diplomatic mission to the U.N. add insult to injury. According to NBC New York, the mission owes as much as $156,000 to the city of New York for more than 1,300 unpaid tickets that date back to the 1990s.

Jong Jo, identified as secretary of North Korea’s U.N. mission, came to his country’s defense. “It is false,” Jong told NBC New York. “Whenever we have a ticket, we pay. Because, you know, if we have three tickets the city does not allow us to renew their permission.”

In fact, a 2002 Memorandum of Understanding between the State Department and New York does allow the city to deny a diplomatic parking decal from vehicles that have three or more unpaid parking tickets, NBC New York reported. Even though the majority of tickets accrued by the diplomatic mission occurred after 2002, the city said that debt from parking tickets prior to that year still has to be paid.  [Newsweek]

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