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Two stories of North Korean illicit activities hit the headlines this month through they illustrate different dimensions of the issue.
North Korean diplomats have long been engaged in smuggling and other illicit activities, motivated at least in part by their need to generate revenue that is kicked back to Pyongyang. (Not all of these money-making schemes are illegal—my late father-in-law once explained that when he was posted to New Delhi it was well known in diplomatic circles that one could purchase beef at the North Korean embassy—they were operating an abattoir in the basement, though perhaps in violation of the Indian public health code.) Diplomats and other officials have been arrested and expelled from numerous countries for activities such as using diplomatic pouches to transport illegal drugs, counterfeit currency, endangered species parts, and untaxed liquor.
The latest episode in this dreary tale comes from India, where, according to the Chosun Ilbo, North Korean diplomats were involved in a scheme to smuggle luxury automobiles into the country to evade India’s high tariffs.
Not only North Korean officials have exploited their diplomatic status to engage in criminal activities around the world, considerable illicit activity occurs within North Korea itself. Steph Haggard and I once estimated that at one time the exportation of counterfeit currency, illegal drugs and other contraband may have accounted for as much as 60 percent of North Korean export revenue, though that figure has fallen considerably over the past decade. Many questions surround these activities: to what extent they are centrally controlled; how they interrelate, since the same ships are allegedly used to transport multiple forms of contraband; and how North Korean entities interface with foreign criminal elements, which may simply take advantage of North Korea’s state failure and corruption to locate activities there, to name a few. Much of this illicit activity appears to center on the North Hamgyong province.
The latest story involves three Japanese nationals who allegedly crossed into North Hamgyong from China enroute to Naso’n (nee Rajin-Sonbong) where, according to Yonhap, they hid drugs in canned goods destined for export back to China. (The case is reminiscent of one from the 1990s in which drugs were put in cans labeled "honey" and then shipped to Japan.) One of the Japanese, a man in his 70s, was expelled, but his two younger compatriots are still in detention. The charges carry the possibility of life in prison.
North Korean cooperation with Iran in the military sphere has been well-documented. A source in Seoul tells us that North Korea-Iran cooperation has now extended to drug trafficking in Southeast Asia as well.
