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May 20, 2003
Testimony to the Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee
on Financial Management, Budget, and International Security
Honorable Senators:
I am the witness designated as the former North Korean high-level
government official to testify about the drug production and
trafficking by the North Korean regime. I would like to thank
you and the American people for your concerns and interests
to help save them on behalf of the North Korean people suffering
under the worst kind of one-man dictatorship in the past fifty
years.
I worked at a North Korean government agency for fifteen
years where I was able to get detailed and first-hand knowledge
about the drug trafficking by the North Korean regime. For
reasons I cannot disclose today, I defected to South Korea
in late 1998. I now live in South Korea and work to help save
the people I left behind in North Korea.
Production and trafficking of illegal drugs by the North
Korean regime has been much publicized for some time now.
Recent seizure of 50 kilograms of heroin on a North Korean
ship named “Bongsu” by the Australian authorities
has confirmed again that the North Korean regime has been
very busy making and selling the illegal drugs to other countries
in order to support the cash strapped regime. North Korea
must be the only country on earth to run a drug production-trafficking
business on a state level.
North Korea started its production of drugs secretly in the
late 1970’s in the mountainous Hamkyung and Yangkang
provinces. North Korea began to produce and sell drugs in
earnest in the late 1980’s, when Kim Il-sung toured
Hamkyung-Bukdo Province and designated the area around Yonsah
Town in Hamkyung Province to be developed into an opium farm.
It was known that the Japanese Colonial government used to
grow opium in this area. Kim Il-sung needed cash.
The local province party committee developed an experimental
opium farm in Yonsah Town in secret, and the farm was tightly
guarded by the security agents. They began to produce opium
at the collective farms located in towns like Yonsah, Hweryung,
Moosan, and Onsung in Hamkyung-Bukdo Province. All opium produced
at these farms were sent to the government to be processed
into heroin. They called these opium poppies broad bellfowers
in order to hide the operation from the general public, but
this was an open secret.
North Korea had very little to export since the early 1990’s
because 90% of their factories became useless for lack of
raw materials. They tried to export mushrooms, medicinal herbs,
and fisheries to China, Japan, and South Korea. However, the
only way to bring in large sums of foreign currency was to
sell drugs to other countries and smuggle in used Japanese
cars.
In the late 1997, the central government ordered that all
local collective farms must cultivate 10 Chungbo (Korean land
unit equal to approx. 25 acres) of poppy farm beginning in
1998. Chinese government got this information and dispatched
reporters and policemen to take pictures of these farms near
the border.
All opium thus produced are sent to the pharmaceutical plants
in Nanam area of Chungjin City in Hamkyung-Bukdo Province.
They are processed and refined into heroin under the supervision
of seven to eight drug experts from Thailand. This is all
done under the direct control and supervision of the central
government.
I heard that there is another opium processing plant near
the Capital city of Pyungyang, but I could not confirm this.
These plants are guarded and patrolled by armed guards from
the National Security and Intelligence Bureau. No outsiders
are allowed in these facilities.
North Korea produces two types of drugs; heroin and methamphetamine
(called Hiroppon in Korea). They produce these drugs one ton
a month each. Heroin is packaged in a box containing 330 grams
(11.6 ounces) of heroin with a Thai label. Methamphetamine
is packaged in a box (?) containing 1 kilogram of the substance,
and has no label.
In China near the border, these drugs are sold for $10,000
per kilogram. Through the ocean on board, these drugs are
sold for $15,000 per kilogram. North Korea sells these drugs
through the border with China to China, Hong Kong, Macao,
and Russia. They also deal with international drug dealers
on the Yellow Sea and the Eastern Sea. Their major market
for drugs is Japan.
It has been known that the North Korean regime has used its
diplomats and businessmen for drug trafficking. In November
1996, a North Korean diplomat stationed in Russia was caught
by the Russian border police with 20 kilograms of illegal
drugs with him. He committed suicide in the prison.
Once, I caught a drug dealer who possessed 47 kilograms of
illegal drugs, and sent the drugs to the authorities. I believe
that the authorities sold the drugs again.
Things are desperate in North Korea. In December 2001, South
Korean authorities found big shipment of illegal drugs at
the port of Pusan, but they did not identify where the drugs
came from. They must have been from North Korea.
As the drug market expanded, I heard that North Korea is
now dealing with the organized international drug dealers
such as Japanese Yakuza and Russian Mafia.
I have a list of incidents as follows:
- In July 1995, an agent of the National Security and Intelligence
Bureau of North Korea was caught by the Chinese police when
he tried to smuggle in 500 kilograms of heroin.
- In November 1996, a North Korean lumberjack working in Russia
was caught at Hassan Station in Russia with 22 kilograms of
opium.
- In May 1997, a North Korean businessman was arrested in
Dandung City, China, when he tried to sell 900 kilograms of
methamphetamine.
- In July 1997, a North Korean lumberjack was caught in Havarovsk,
Russia when he tried to sell 5 kilograms of opium.
- In January 1998, two North Korean diplomats stationed in
Mexico were caught by the Russian police when they tried to
smuggle in 35 kilograms of cocaine.
- In July 1998, two North Korean diplomats stationed in Syria
were arrested when they tried to smuggle in 500,000 capsules
of psychotomimetics (stimulents).
I believe that the North Korean regime will continue to produce
and sell the illegal drugs to other countries to earn the
foreign currency otherwise not available to them.
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