Is North Korea’s Government-Led Drug Industry the Truth?
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.
Following this directive, large-scale opium cultivation began in farms in North Korea’s northern regions, starting with the Baekam Comprehensive Farm in North Hamgyong Province and the Daehongdan Comprehensive Farm in Ryanggang Province. North Korea referred to opium not as “opium” but as “Baekdoraji,” with “Baekdoraji farms” meaning opium farms. Authorities directed cooperative farms across the country to produce and harvest opium, involving even students in the collection of opium sap. This sap, collected nationwide, was brought to Pyongyang to be processed into opium.
It is unimaginable for a normal country to lead the drug industry at the national level. However, since North Korea is a socialist system with a dictator and cannot secure governance funds with taxes, it is presumed that the North Korean authorities have produced and exported significant amounts of drugs.
How, then, did North Korean drugs infiltrate domestically?
North Korean drugs have become more widespread through local smuggling organizations. Southeast Asia has analyzed that North Korean “ice” has dominated the drug market, with North Korean drugs spreading globally, including to the United States and Europe. North Korean drugs are distributed at a price 30 times cheaper than those from other countries, and while the average purity of methamphetamine is 40-50%, North Korean methamphetamine boasts a purity of 99%. This high purity and lower price make North Korean drugs preferred, which are smuggled into South Korea through the North-China border area, passing through the Chinese drug black market. Moreover, North Korean restaurants overseas, including in China, serve as distribution hubs for North Korean drugs, and North Korean workers sent to Russia to earn foreign currency also sell opium.
Drug production on a national scale for the sake of earning foreign currency has infiltrated the daily lives of the citizens. Drugs destroy not just the individual’s daily life but also devastate entire families. North Korea may attempt to project the image of a normal country to the international community. Still, it chooses to secure governance funds over the safety of its people, thereby sickening the entire nation.
Furthermore, as North Korean drugs increasingly infiltrate South Korea, there is growing concern that the entire Korean Peninsula may become a “drug zone.” North Korea needs to undergo social changes across the board, including establishing a functional medical system and developing its internal economy, especially after the downturn caused by COVID-19, to overcome the drug issue. Additionally, as the North Korean drug issue has not been widely publicized internationally, it is likely to remain a significant social problem for a long time.
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