Went to an interesting presentation today on North Korea's criminal activities given by a former mid-level Bush Administration staffer. He said he's done some research on states that engage in criminal enterprises and compared North Korea to other examples such as Romania under Ceausescu and Panama under Noriega and found that the North is simply in a class of its own.
He said that North Korea has been found engaging in literally hundreds of public criminal incidents around the world, involving nearly every DPRK embassy. Indeed, Australia's bust of the Pong Su occurred roughly a year after an embassy was established in Canberra. This, he noted, should be little surprise as North Korean embassies are expected to contribute income to the state.
The scale of this activity may be tough to estimate but he pointed out that it is likely at least in the hundreds of millions of dollars given that the country has at least a $500 million trade deficit, the quality of life for the North Korean elite has improved in recent years, inflation is tolerable and markets in the country are awash in foreign goods.
North Korea's criminal activities take five primary forms: sales of illegal narcotics (Japan is a big market and the fact that it is produced in government labs ensures a very high degree of purity), printing counterfeit currency (extremely high quality copies of $100 bills, referrred to as "super dollars" or "super notes" are said to be in circulation), counterfeit goods such as cigarettes, trade in illegal goods such as rhino horns, ivory and conflict diamonds and money laundering.
With regard to counterfeiting he claimed that such an act is regarded as a casus belli and that no other country has done this since Nazi Germany. Describing the trade in rhino horns and ivory as particularly disgusting he said that in 1999 a North Korean diplomat was walking through Moscow airport carrying a diplomatic package that burst and rhino horns fell all over the floor.
He said that North Korea has been found engaging in literally hundreds of public criminal incidents around the world, involving nearly every DPRK embassy. Indeed, Australia's bust of the Pong Su occurred roughly a year after an embassy was established in Canberra. This, he noted, should be little surprise as North Korean embassies are expected to contribute income to the state.
The scale of this activity may be tough to estimate but he pointed out that it is likely at least in the hundreds of millions of dollars given that the country has at least a $500 million trade deficit, the quality of life for the North Korean elite has improved in recent years, inflation is tolerable and markets in the country are awash in foreign goods.
North Korea's criminal activities take five primary forms: sales of illegal narcotics (Japan is a big market and the fact that it is produced in government labs ensures a very high degree of purity), printing counterfeit currency (extremely high quality copies of $100 bills, referrred to as "super dollars" or "super notes" are said to be in circulation), counterfeit goods such as cigarettes, trade in illegal goods such as rhino horns, ivory and conflict diamonds and money laundering.
With regard to counterfeiting he claimed that such an act is regarded as a casus belli and that no other country has done this since Nazi Germany. Describing the trade in rhino horns and ivory as particularly disgusting he said that in 1999 a North Korean diplomat was walking through Moscow airport carrying a diplomatic package that burst and rhino horns fell all over the floor.
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