Mick Hartley

We haven't heard of the drug problem in North Korea – methamphetamine, mainly – for a while now: last July, and here, here, here previously. Still a major problem though, as the Daily NK reports:

Despite heightened crackdowns and stricter punishments following new anti-narcotics legislation, drug abuse remains widespread in North Korea, particularly among officials. A source in Kangwon province reported that an increasing number of officials from powerful agencies, including local party committees and security ministries, are both using and distributing methamphetamines and opium for profit.

Officials are becoming entangled in drug deals both to secure their own supply and because dealers deliberately target them for protection, with some officials even promoting drug use at social gatherings….

Since officials from provincial trading companies and individual agencies have engaged in relatively brisk trading activities since Kim Jong Un’s  “20×10 regional development policy” was launched early this year, attempts to use this opportunity to smuggle North Korean drugs to China are growing, the source said. 

The problem is that with officials deeply enmeshed in the drug trade, North Korea’s anti-drug crime law has been rendered ineffective.

In 2021, the 15th plenary meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th Supreme People’s Assembly enacted an anti-drug law that stipulated a maximum penalty of death for illegally gathering, manufacturing or smuggling drugs.

“The reason the drug problem only gets worse is that the people buying drugs are officials,” the source said. “Even the central government is aware that drug addiction is growing more serious, but can’t do a thing about it.”

Drugs are such a severe problem in North Korea that even high school students ingest them.