North Korea and Illegal Narcotics: Smoke but No Fire?

© The National Bureau of Asian Research, Seattle, Washington benjamin k. sovacool is currently a research fellow at the Centre on Asia and Globalisation, part of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He is also an adjunct assistant professor at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where he has taught for the Government and International Affairs Program and the Department of History. He can be reached at . North Korea and Illegal Narcotics: Smoke but No Fire? Benjamin K. Sovacool asia policy, number 7 (january 2009), 89–111 research note • http://asiapolicy.nbr.org • keywords: north korea; narcotics; trafficking; u.s. foreign policy asia policy executive summary This article examines the extent to which the North Korean regime has dabbled in the state-sponsored production and distribution of illegal narcotics. main argument Many U.S. policymakers, including the president and secretary of state, and many within the U.S. media tacitly accept the idea that the North Korean state is an increasingly active drug trafficker and producer of heroin and methamphetamine. A review of the available evidence, however, shows these claims to be unsupported. The fact that the existing data can hold North Korea responsible for only less than one hundredth of 1% of global narcotics production and the fact that satellite imagery has been unable to confirm any North Korean drug production strongly suggest that the regime receives at most a tepid percentage of its annual revenues from narcotics trafficking. policy implications • U.S. policymakers would benefit from decoupling the drug issue from other security issues—such as weapons proliferation and regime collapse— so that targeted security policies could deal with each threat in isolation instead of conflating (and possibly distorting) threats. • U.S. and Asian counternarcotics operations and strategies could be finetuned to address some of the fundamental differences between patterns of North Korean drug production and trafficking and those occurring in Central and Southeast Asia. • For the community of U.S. analysts and politicians, as well as for many of the major media outlets at large, the characterization of North Korea as a significant illegal narcotics producer and trafficker raises serious questions regarding the way such information is produced and calls for a rethinking of how many in the U.S. understand the North Korean regime. [ 91 ] sovacool • north korea and illegal narcotics Is North Korea a major drug producing and trafficking state in Asia? Early in the summer of 2003, the Australian navy captured more than one hundred kilograms (kg) of heroin aboard a large cargo ship called the Pong Su.1 The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) owned and operated the vessel. More than half the crew were citizens of the DPRK, and one of those arrested was reputably a senior member of the Korean Workers’ Party. A study released by the Jamestown Foundation claimed that the seizure “is indisputable proof that the North Korean regime is busy exporting illegal drugs for generating state revenue.”2 The U.S. Department of Defense issued a press release noting that the seizure “demonstrates that elements within North Korea are extending their illicit activities.”3 President George W. Bush even stated that: We are deeply concerned about heroin and methamphetamine linked to North Korea being trafficked to East Asian countries… The April 2003 seizure of 125 kilograms of heroin smuggled to Australia aboard the North Korean owned vessel Pong Su is the latest and largest seizure of heroin pointing to North Korean complicity in the drug trade.4 Yet the incident of the Pong Su proves to have been more complicated than a simple tale of North Korean drug activity. According to Australian sources, the Australian government dropped charges against most of those arrested because of insufficient evidence.5 An independent Australian police investigation concluded that the heroin on board was of the high quality Double UOGlobe brand, bearing a distinctive red seal and two lions, that is produced exclusively in Myanmar and with no connections to North Korea.6 Officials predict that, rather than leaving North Korea with illicit narcotics, the ship likely picked up the heroin en route between Myanmar and Thailand and then headed south around...