N. Korea illegal drug trade

Japan accuses N. Korea of ties with illegal drug trade

When the rusty fishing boat arrived from China via North Korea for an offshore rendezvous, its crew got an unwelcome surprise 窶 it was boarded and searched by the Japanese Coast Guard. Peeling back a wooden panel to reveal a hidden compartment, officers found 10 boxes containing more than 330 pounds of North Korean methamphetamines, a potent stimulant that is the illegal drug of choice for abusers in Japan. In desperate need of money to pay for its huge army and expensive nuclear and conventional weapons programs 窶 not to mention feed its people 窶 North Korea has found a lucrative source of funds in Japanese drug addicts, experts say. [...]

Methamphetamines offer an easy fix. They can be manufactured easily and cheaply and transported at little risk. Japan's coastline, slightly less than California's, is hard to guard. Latest customs figures say Japan seized 2,473 pounds of methamphetamines from North Korea in the three years through 2001. That was second to seizures from China: 3,916 pounds. "We believe North Korea is capable of mass producing top-quality stimulants," said Naoto Takeuchi, an anti-narcotics official at the National Police Agency. "There could be a government agency behind it." [...]

Also, Japan and North Korea have no diplomatic relations, so the Japanese government has not been able to directly press the North to crack down on drug trafficking.

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=> USATODAY.com - Japan accuses N. Korea of ties with illegal drug trade

"Also, Japan and North Korea have no diplomatic relations, so the Japanese government has not been able to directly press the North to crack down on drug trafficking."

The NK news agency site is hosted and maintained in Japan, so there you go: send them an email.

You mean there is a legal trade that N. Korea has?
just kidding....
Time ol' Kim gets off his white horse and come back down to reality instead of make-believe-land....

I'm sure Mr. Kim is on methamphetamines too. I just hope his fingers are far away from the little red button.

N. Korea is supposed to have the 3rd largest area of poppy fields right after Afghanistan and Burma.

That I read somewhere in John Feffer's "North Korea South Korea U.S. Policy at a Time of Crisis". If I was any good at taking notes I would have marked that one. This short book has no index, but is loaded with informative notes and is published on 7 Stories Press. (hint hint. Found it sitting on the shelf at the local Barnes&Noble)


So, although I know little about N Korea and am always suspicious of governments' propaganda, that doesn't surprise me too much.

Determination

With a determinated action, is possible to win the war against the drugs.

rant on the "drug WAR"

O Crud. Here I go again. This 1st paragraph is an edited in pre-appology. In case this sounds harsh or something. I guess I've grown used to debating hard-core (US) republicans in other forums. So what do I do, I go off on some tangent on drugs, stating this, that, and everything in between as if I am debating the drug czar of the US who will never consider giving up on the war on drugs because 'tuff-guys' don't surrender. I've got to ween myself away from this other bulletein board and all the negative energy they have there. Maybe it's just sitting in front of a computer so much that adds to a bad mood. So, again, I appologize in advance if this post sounds angry or bitter.


IMO we are going about our drug problem the wrong way. "Bad. Bad. Bad. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong." That's all you are told when you ingest illegal drugs. Treatment, as a health problem, would go a lot further, rather than treating people like trash; like they are some lower form of life, for using drugs. US author Michael Manning (Massing?) wrote a book titled "The Fix", in which he said former US President Richard Nixon was right with regards to drugs. Treatment rather than source country suppression went a lot further in solving the domestic drug problem for the US.


And besides, it's a problem much of the making of the United States government anyway. "The Politics of Heroin : CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade" by Alfred McCoy documents how the CIA's allies from Chinese Nationals in northern Burma to the Contra's in Nicaragua, from WW2 Italian Mafia (although here it was the CIA's predecesor agency) to Hmong hill tribes of Laos, and yes even anti-Soviet Mujihadeen in Afghanistan, current Northern Alliance factions, and KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) in Kosovo, have all funded their wars, at least in part, with drug money. So, rather than incarceration, if US right-wing politicians were to be honest, they should offer medals to all those that are ware-housed in US prisons for non-violent drug offenses. Or, we could just let non-violent offenders out and stop funding civil wars & conflicts around the globe. War, the pattern seems to be, just brings more war. And as the saying goes, "only the dead have seen the end of the war".

Another couple of books on the topic are "Whiteout: Drugs, CIA and the Press" by Cockburn. And "Dark Alliance" about CIA/Conta/Cocaine explosion in Los Angeles by Gary Webb.

One more and then I'll stop.
The infamous marijuana plant.
"taima" Nihongo de (in Japanese) I believe is the correct word.
"The Emperor Wears No Clothes" by Jack Herer seems to be a good starter book on the history of this plant and its many uses. The 'online emperor' is available. One doesn't have to smoke the stuff to realize it should not be illegal. I don't now, but used to just after high school. In my home state of Wisconsin, towns such as Waupon and Ripon have a history of growing the stuff for fiber about 100 years ago.


I do believe, that intervening in other countries, is the wrong way to go about it.
Sorry, I felt the need for one more.
Colombia. In Colombia the United States government has been sending millions (or is it billions?) of dollars in recent years in military hardware in the name of fighting the drug war. At the day of Sept 11, 2001, Colombia's left-wing "narco-guerillas" suddenly turned into terrorists and the need to send military aid and training ( SOA Watch ) has continued under a new guise. Our US government is not taking sides in their 38 year old civil war or anything. No. We would never do that. Never mind that the drug trade is prevalent in all sectors of the government, the military, and the right-wing paramilitary death squads which have ties to the military, (some would say are one in the same.)
Colombia Support Network

Anyway, how is your day?
Is your country involved in any business as usual intervening?
How do you propose we deal with drugs in our societies?
What are drug laws in Japan?
McCoy's book, I think, said the Yakuza pretty much kept drugs out of Japan so long as they could have prostitution and pachinko. I think that's where I heard that. Somewhere.