N. Korea: Drug Sold Domestically For Kim's Fund(regime pushing drug - PART II)

The Daily NK ^ | 04/12/05 | Lee Young-hwa

[TigerLikesRooster]

/begin my translation

Drug Sold Domestically For Kim Jong-il's Fund

[Japanese Expert Analysis-Part II] S. Korean Government Agency Report On "Rising Drug Use of N. Koreans"

[ 2005-04-12 18:38 ]

N. Korean drug seized by
Australian Special Units in 2003

A recent report prepared by a S. Korean government agency has the following headline:

"Recently, the use of METH is suddenly rising at N. Korean border area. N. Korean authorities as well as Chinese is raising their concern."

The report accurately analyzes why N. Korean drug market has gotten so big.

Intense Competition Between State Security and Security Command

There are two reasons why Kim Jong-il charged both State Security and Security Command with drug sale.

First, both are in charge of border security and surveillance of civilians. Second, both maintain close cooperation with Chinese public security (especially personal connection.) Thus, they can set up smuggling routes and networks on both sides of the (Sino-N. Korean)border.

However, the overland route through China is not as good as the sea route(used before PSI went into effect.) Both organizations could not ignore periodic drug sweep by Chinese government. This would put heavy pressure on meeting monthly quota for the two organizations. In the end, they started selling drug inside N. Korea.

Pushing Drugs to N. Koreans to Meet Quota

The drug they are exporting through Chinese routes are the top quality drug(aka 'Pine Tree Course')produced at Heungnam Pharmaceutical Co. in S. Hamkyong Province. In China, its wholesale price is 300 Renminbi per gram (1 gram for 20~30 dosage.) It is then sold at five times of this price all over China, which is eventually smuggled into S. Korea and Japan.

The inside of Ranam Pharmaceutical plant in N. Hamkyong Province. Middle-grade METH is reportedly produced here.

METH circulating inside N. Korea is the middle-grade(aka 'Bamboo Tree Course') produced at Ranam Pharmaceutical Plant in N. Hamkyong Province. Its wholesale price is about one third of Chinese price(100~150 Renminbi per gram.) The price is not the same, nor the profit margin. Still it is sold only for foreign currency(Renminbi or Dollar.) This is enormously expensive in N. Korean living standard. However, the trial sale in the country was a huge success. The target customers were 'rich folks' with successful business who made a lot of foreign currency.

Yakuza Joins, Three-way Competition Started

To meet the unexpected surge of domestic demand, both organizations increased the domestic supply. As a result, they could easily meet monthly quota of a few millions dollars, and reportedly received commendation from Kim Jong-il. There was a third organization which was watching this development with keen interest. It was Japanese 'Yakuza.'

Yakuza recruited some chemists and entered N. Korean domestic drug market. Yakuza provided the lowest-grade METH(aka 'Ume Course') circulated in N. Korea. The real purpose behind revised Criminal Code  and its encouragement of 'snitch(report)' is to eradicate cheap 'Ume Course' which is flooding into the domestic market, breaking state's monopoly.

Fierce competition among State Security, Security Command, and Yakuza dramatically increased the number of drug addicts. Recently, it is said that people openly sell drug-inhaling device in a market.

In 2003, Australian Authorities display N. Korean drug seized from captured N. Korean ship.

Kim Jong-il Wants Dollars

 N. Korea runs huge trade deficit every year. Smuggling is the only way to make up for the deficit worth 700million to 1 billion dollars. However, N. Korean economic lifeline made up of weapon's sale and drug trade are repeatedly blocked by U.S.-led PSI(Proliferation Security Initiative.) Naturally, they cannot lower their trade deficit. N. Korean economy is broke. Kim Jong-il has to find new avenues for smuggling to secure enough dollars. 

These days, Kim Jong-il's new smuggling ventures are making fake American cigarettes and selling drugs in China and N. Korea. Kim Jong-il's appetite for foreign currency is pushing N. Korean people into drug addction.

International Community, Unite Against Kim Jong-il's Crime

'Wealthy class' are supposed to be the support base of Kim Jong-il.  Right now, it is they who are falling into drug addiction. Kim Jong-il is even pushing drug to his main support base to make dollars.

More shocking report said that, two years ago, they supplied METH to officials in the Party and other government organizations in Pyongyang. Under Kim Jong-il's directive, METH(stimulant) were given, in order to make them 'work harder and longer.' This is the testament to  Kim's unconscionable depravity.

International community ought to completely shut down N. Korea's drug smuggling. We should stop importing any items who could earn hard currency for Kim Jong-il or boycott them. We ought to end sinister deeds of  Kim Jong-il Dynasty as soon as possible.  (End)

Lee Young-hwa (Prof. at Economics Dept., Kansai Univ., Japan)
Editing/Park In-ho

	Lee Young-hwa - Born in Osaka, Japan (1954) - Studied in N. Korean Academy of Social Science(1991) - (currently) Assistant Professor at Economics Dept., Kansai Univesity - (currently) The Head of RENK <Rescue The North Korean People ! Urgent Action Network > - major publications <N. Korea, Gulag Archipelago>, <Korea in Japan, ethnic Koreans and suffrage >

/end my translation

[TigerLikesRooster]

To read Part I, click the following:

N. Korea: Drug Addiction On the Rapid Rise(regime pushing drug - PART I)

[TigerLikesRooster]

Ping!

[TigerLikesRooster]

The link to Part I has a slight bug. Here is the correct one:

N. Korea: Drug Addiction On the Rapid Rise(regime pushing drug - PART I)

[flitton]

Fascinating, thanks. Looks as if the structure may just crumble from the effect of being run by meth addicts.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #4

Yeah, this raise some hope that the implosion of N. Korean regime would not be cataclysmic.

[usafsk]

South Korea was full of Meth in the mid- to late-80's. Crank, as we called it, was a bigger problem than Thai stick or anything else among troops. It allowed them to party and work and party and work on what seemed an endless cycle.

Those who became addicted were crazier than anyone I've seen or met with a cocaine problem. I had one troop who was convined CID was hiring Korean prostitues to follow him around, that they were planting crank in his barracks room - found him cleaning the floor with a toothbrush - and various other things. He finally cleaned up after we had, well, an intervention of sorts. We simply took him to an NCO's off-base house and persuaded him to get his act together.

He cleaned up, but he had an incentive - getting out in a few months with a clean service record. If the NKs are riding crank through the hell that is their lives, it's only a matter of time before the violence and paranoia reach epic levels. Should be fun to watch.

[nuconvert]

"it's only a matter of time before the violence and paranoia reach epic levels."

There's something rather scary in that thought when you're talking about people in charge of running a country.

[usafsk]

Well, the regime needs to fall somehow. While they might have a nuke or two, and some long range missiles, they have little ability to launch them against us. Their long range tests are uncontrolled wobble shots. Adding a crude warhead would only lead to more unpredictability.

I would hope that this level of paranoia might lead to someone plugging KJL over a Bul-go-gi sit-down dinner. Happened in the South along time ago. These are volatile people - the Irish of Asia - so it doesn't take much to set them off. They also have the classic "saving face" problems that are common in Asia.

Anyway, the brunt of any collapse and related hostilities will fall heavily on the ROK. Even our trip-wire forces are pulling back. The NK military is full of hungry automatons who will be largely ineffective once their DMZ-centric artillery advantage is neutralized through air power and counter-battery work by the ROK Army.

This is a house of cards. Maybe crystal meth is the breeze we've been waiting for.

[BJClinton]

Considering how this seems to target "business people" I would assume we're talking about people in some kind of leadership position. I'd hate to think of some hopped-up mid-level, officer getting paranoid and firing something at SK.

Also, these would probably include a lot of people getting by with the new private enterprise growing in NK. This may be a ploy by Li'l Kim to keep their money in the regime.

[struggle]

Dude, a Sho Chiku Bai standard for meth?

You have GOT to be kidding me!

[MizSterious]

Thanks for posting these. Thing is, the little runt might come to regret opening this particular Pandora's box. People on meth are extremely unpredictable, and in most ways, uncontrollable. They are paranoid, violent (because they believe everyone's out to get them), and totally irrational to the point of hallucinations. The longer they use meth, and the more of it they use, the worse it gets. If I were a despot, the last thing I'd want is a bunch of paranoid schizophrenics running around loose in "my" country. One of them just might decide the ugly little troll has to die.

[TigerLikesRooster]

RE #11

Yes, they might start shooting one another before they even get around to shoot at us. N. Korea decapitate itself. They brought it onto themselves. That could be the most unexpected but eminently fair justice, if it happens.

[MizSterious]

However, now that I think of it, this news might explain the little troll's methish behavior. Honestly, if I were a despot, I think I'd want them all on opium, keeps them a lot more mellow and malleable. The guy really IS nuts.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #13

They have been growing opium for quite a while. Now they produce METH big time. I am sure that profit margin for METH is bigger. Both must be sold in N. Korea.

[SevenofNine]

MAN this telling me alot Little Kim is Tony Montana of North Korea and Asian world LOL!

[TigerLikesRooster]

Re #15

Imagine the final moment of Chia Fruit. Barricaded behind a mound of METH and heroine in his office, and high on METH, he wants to duke it out like Rambo.:-)

[AmericanInTokyo]

Great work as always. You are one of the BEST on Free Republic!

[AmericanInTokyo]

I think Sandia National Labs is developing non-lethal weapons that can stun or disable somebody, but not kill them.

Like the 'glue gun' or those spider web nets, I understand they have. I really think when we seize Kim in his bunker, we need to stun and save him from himself. He, the great almighty Chia Fruit, will be much more interesting as a zoo specimin alive, rather than having wasted himself when our guys enter, thus eliminating a prime source of information and entertainment for years to come.

[SevenofNine]

I getting image end of Scarface in my mind ROFL

I am sorry something about Little Kim saying those immortal lines make me laugh