Targeting Pyongyang's drug trade addiction
By Ah-Young Kim

(Used by permission of Pacific Forum CSIS)

The recent seizure of the ship Pong Su off Australian waters and its cargo of more than US$144 million of heroin has put North Korea's drug trafficking in the international spotlight. The attention is long overdue.

North Korea has for many years been deeply involved in the drug trade, and unlike other North Korean misdeeds, there is little debate over or sympathy for its actions. There must be a strong response by the international community and concerted efforts to halt North Korean drug trafficking. This week's ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Regional Forum (ARF) meeting in Cambodia provides a ready platform to begin this anti-drug effort.

North Korea's illegal drug production is not new, nor is it an ad hoc operation. South Korean intelligence believes that North Korean farmers, under direct instructions from the leadership in Pyongyang, have developed numerous poppy farms since the late 1970s. They estimate that cultivation areas expanded from 4.3 million square meters in 1992 to 42 million square meters in 1993, and about 72 million square meters in 1994. Government factories reportedly process the cultivated opium into heroin, and then companies and diplomatic economic departments distribute it.

Those sources believe that Aesung Chongguk (under Office No 39 of the North Korean Worker's Party) is in charge of selling opium overseas while Daesung Chongguk coordinates opium trafficking through its trading corporation Daesung Sangsa, which has 20 overseas branches. North Korea is thought to produce more than 40 tons of opium a year; estimates of revenue earned range from a low of $48 million to as much as $1 billion annually (if all illegal drugs, such as heroin, cocaine and methamphetamines are included). A recent study by US Forces Korea and South Korea's 21st Century Military Research Institute concludes that North Korea exports $500 million of narcotics annually, making it the world's third-largest opium exporter and the sixth-largest heroin exporter.

North Korea's location facilitates drug smuggling and makes it a real concern for its neighbors. William Bach, director of the Office of African, Asian, and European Affairs within the US State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, testified that since 1976, there have been at least 50 arrests and/or drug seizures involving North Koreans in more than 20 countries.

Japanese officials claim that nearly 50 percent of illegal drug imports into Japan originate from North Korea. Last year, Japanese authorities seized a shipment of 150 kilograms of methamphetamines. It is believed that the North Korean spy boat chased and sunk last year was running drugs.

Other witness accounts link North Korean drug smuggling with the Russian mafia, the Japanese Yakuza, and other international criminal organizations in Europe and Southeast Asia. While defectors' stories deserve some skepticism, the arrests and the consistency of the tales suggest there is truth to the claims that North Korea has systematically developed its drug production and trafficking capabilities.

That trade is now a focus of international concern as the United States attempts to build consensus on measures to tighten the economic noose around North Korea. Drug trafficking is an easy target: there are no doubts about the existence of the program, nor are there debates about its moral content or purposes. The networks that smuggle the drugs can also be used for other contraband (such as plutonium). Finally, cutting the flow of drugs means cutting the flow of drug money - a vital source of income - which could help push the North to the negotiating table.

Combating the drug trade will require a multifaceted, international strategy that demands close cooperation from all nations of Northeast Asia. That strategy should include: