North Korea’s Medicinal Methampetamine

Open News reports that North Korea has launched another crackdown on drugs:

A source in Hyaesan, Yanggand Province reported on the 11th, January that “Kim Jong-eun has ordered the army and security forces to combine and form a task force dedicated to cracking down on the abuse of drugs in North Korea in the years “first battle. The new body began its activities on the fifth of the month.”

I think they meant to say “Yaggang,” aka “Ryanggang.”

Referring to the policy as a “battle” indicates that all efforts will be mobilized in its undertaking. Such a battle against drugs in the North indicates that the situation has reached the point where the regime sees the problem as a threat to its existence. “Drug abuse is spreading amongst the youth and the establishment of this drug combatting force is Kim Jong-eun’s prescription to medicate worsening public opinion,” added the source. “It’s nothing less than a declaration of a war on drugs.”

“Up until now any drug criminality and abuse has been dealt with by the Ministry of Public Security (the equivalent of South Korea’s police force). Significantly, the Security Department (the equivalent of the South’s National Intelligence Service) will now take the lead in concert with the military. The security apparatus taking a leading role in managing the drug problem is a clear indication that the problem is now perceived as a systemic issue,” the source went on. “There are periodic crackdowns on drugs in the North but this is the first time the State Security Department has been mobilized.”

I assume most readers of this blog have heard that North Korea was once a major exporter of illicit drugs, especially methamphetamine and heroin. Recently, however, the North Korean state’s dope industry appears to have collapsed along with the rest of its industries. North Korean diplomats are still getting caught smuggling dope on occasion, but most of the available evidence suggests that North Korea’s illicit drug exports have dropped off sharply. This may be a function, in part, of Japan cutting off most trade with North Korea, which probably also cut off some lucrative smuggling routes. In any event, there were still plenty of North Koreans who had the knowledge, the connections, and the economic desperation to go into the dope business on their own. The collapse of North Korea’s medical care system (Margaret Chan’s views notwithstanding) gave them a domestic market. North Koreans who couldn’t get simple cold remedies and pain killers turned to meth and heroin instead. And so one day, South Korea will have to reunify with a broken nation whose myriad public safety and health problems may include tens of thousands of drug dealers, smugglers, addicts. Open News adds:

Drug abuse in North Korea has been on the increase. According to North Korea Ministry of Health data confirmed by an Open Radio correspondent, more than 200,000 North Koreans had used Philopon more than once as of December 2008. The numbers of those who had used opium in the treatment of some sort of illness had reached 500,000. However, taking into account those not included in the Department of Health’s figures the number of North Koreans using Philopon or opium could be higher.

I’m suspicious of the origin of those statistics, but they sound plausible. And they’re staggering for a nation of 23 million or so, especially for such a tightly controlled society.

You can read more about North Korea’s drug problem here.