South Korea is no longer a safe zone for drugs. The United Nations (UN) awards the status of a drug-free country if there are fewer than 20 drug offenders per 100,000 population. South Korea has already exceeded this figure in 2016.
The rapidly increasing drug crimes in Korea. Where do these drugs come from? Experts estimate that a significant portion of the drugs circulating within the country come from North Korea. Given the controlled and closed nature of North Korean society, people estimate North Korea as a drug-free zone. However, the real world is quite the opposite.
Drugs are becoming a social issue not only in South Korea but also in North Korea (ⓒFlickr)
When did the drugs start in North Korea?
During the Japanese colonial period, Japan used opium as part of its colonial policy, utilizing it as military supplies. Morphine was used as a painkiller and sometimes to put the enemy in a difficult situation. After liberation, exploiting a significant amount of remaining opium, drugs continued to be produced and circulated within North Korea. In the mid-1980s, as senior officials in their 70s and 80s increased and health problems arose, according to Kim Jong Il’s orders, Methamphetamine was supplied to North Korean Central Party officials for health treatment, and the drug problem gradually came to the fore in North Korea.
How widespread are drugs within North Korea?
North Korea enacted a drug-related law in 2003, and 2013, they amended the Illegal Opium Cultivation · Drug Manufacturing Crime to allow for the death penalty. North Korea then enacted a drug crime prevention law at the 15th plenary session of the 14th term held on July 1, 2021. These laws indicate that North Korea has recognized the seriousness of the drugs that had been neglected as they spread not only outside North Korea and among officials but also in the civilian sector and among residents and that drugs have emerged as a social issue within North Korea.
In North Korea, drugs are referred to in code as Ice, and houses that sell this Ice are called retail houses. Currently, the price of 1g of ice, which can be used about 10 times, is traded for less than $15, which is only a fraction of the price at which it is trafficked in South Korea. As the price is low, there are bound to be many people looking for it.
North Korean residents gathered in a marketplace in Hamhung (ⓒGetty image)
Especially after the collapse of the state distribution system during the famine in the 1990s, the dependence on drugs among residents increased. Due to the lack of medicine, drugs that could be easily obtained were overused. Scientists and technicians who had the technology to produce drugs instead of operating factories began to secretly produce drugs and sell them in the private sector, exacerbating this phenomenon. North Korean residents, suffering from economic difficulties and harsh living conditions, became addicted to stronger drugs, leading to a vicious cycle that eventually led to social problems. Furthermore, even within the Ministry of Security, which should crack down on drugs and the military, drugs spread rapidly and were used as a means of making money.
The truth about the drug industry led by North Korean authorities?
On the other hand, North Korea’s drug industry is closely related to earning foreign currency. Kim Jong Il needed a large amount of funds to carry out reckless projects as the successor to President Kim Il Sung. As a means of raising these funds, he started state-led drug production and earned foreign currency through drug smuggling, using Russia and China as bases. At the time, Kim Il Sung emphasized drug production as a “new way to fight American imperialism,” proposing a business logic of paralyzing capitalist societies by addicting them to drugs, such as the United States, and earning money to sustain socialism, which is killing two birds with one stone.
Most Commented