Drugs manufactured in North Korea are entering Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia by way of Chinese brokers, with North Korea’s Escort Command overseeing sales and distribution, a Daily NK source has alleged.
Escort Command is the agency responsible for the protection of Kim Jong Eun and his family.
Kim Mo (pseudonym), a former employee of North Korea’s Ministry of State Security, spoke with Daily NK on the 2nd: “Escort Command was tasked with managing the illicit drug trade by Kim Jong Il, so that he could maintain his personal slush fund, which Kim Jong Eun has inherited. The main point of production is the Hungnam Pharmaceutical Factory in South Hamkyung Province.”
“Around 60% of Hungnam’s population is involved in drug manufacturing,” he alleged. “It provides people in the area with cereals, sugar and oil in a bid to keep any competing forces at bay. Escort Command dominates all the distribution and sale of drugs currently being smuggled into China.”
North Korean-made drugs are “cheap and of reasonable quality,” the source revealed, before adding that, “The product is popular in China, and word has reached international brokers who are now importing it into South Korea, Japan and throughout Southeast Asia.”
In order for the regime to maintain a monopoly and boost its foreign currency earnings, the Ministry of State Security has been charged with cracking down on any production and sale operating outside of state-sanctioned channels, the source testified.
“North Korea earns a lot of money by smuggling drugs into China. The drug problem has become widespread, and now people are manufacturing it on their own.”
Additionally, he asserted, “Trading companies and officials who live overseas are under surveillance by Escort Command, and are tasked with selling the drugs. Methods have been developed whereby the product is disguised as medicine or chocolate. North Koreans overseas connect with local mafia and sell large amounts of it at places like casinos.”
These allegations follow reports that a group of defectors were apprehended last month by South Korean police for attempting to smuggle drugs hidden inside laptop batteries.
