Pubdate: Mon, 17 Feb 2003 Source: South China Morning Post (Hong Kong) Copyright: 2003 South China Morning Post Publishers Limited. Contact: http://www.scmp.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/416 Author: Associated Press in Tokyo Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine) NORTH KOREA APPEARS TO HAVE FOUND A FIX FOR ITS ECONOMY - ILLICIT DRUGS The Communist State Is The Number Two Producer, After China, Of Ice Seized In Japan When the rusty fishing boat arrived from China via North Korea for an offshore rendezvous, its crew got an unwelcome surprise - it was boarded and searched by the Japanese coastguard. Peeling back a wooden panel to reveal a hidden compartment, officials found 10 boxes containing more than 150kg of North Korean methamphetamines, a potent stimulant that has long been the illegal drug of choice for abusers in Japan. In desperate need of money to feed its huge army and its expensive nuclear and conventional weapons development programmes - not to mention feed its own people - North Korea has found a lucrative source of funds in Japanese drug addicts, experts say. "It's nothing less than state-organised crime - to feed the Japanese stimulants and put them out of commission," opposition lawmaker Takeshi Hidaka said in a recent parliamentary national security committee. Japan's illegal stimulant market - estimated to be worth more than 1.08 trillion yen (HK$70 billion) annually - is an attractive target for North Korea. Largely cut off from the rest of the world, its economy has been teetering on the verge of collapse for years, weighed down by a high military budget, limited technology and little external trade. Methamphetamines offer an easy fix. The drugs, also known as Ice, can be relatively easily and cheaply manufactured, and transported to Japanese users at little risk because of Japan's long and porous coastline. Between 1999 and 2001, 1.1 tonnes of methamphetamines from North Korea was seized in Japan. It ranked second only to China as a source of the illegal drug. Some 1.78 tonnes from China were intercepted. "We believe North Korea is capable of mass-producing top-quality stimulants," said Naoto Takeuchi, an anti-narcotics official at the National Police Agency. Because outsiders have very little access to the isolated country, proving North Korea's government is directly involved in the drug trade is difficult. "We have no evidence to prove Pyongyang's role in the smuggling, although we believe it is possibly run systematically by a large organisation," said Minoru Hanai, of the coastguard's international criminal investigation division. The seizure off Kyushu island just over a year ago was typical of what Japan is now up against. Though all the crew members aboard the intercepted vessel were Chinese, one has testified during trial that the drugs were taken aboard in waters just west of Pyongyang. They were almost certainly to be sold to Japanese gangsters, who control the domestic drug trade. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager