Pubdate: Wed, 07 May 2003
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2003 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Jay Solomon

PYONGYANG DENIES TIES TO HEROIN-DRUG TRADE

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea denied it was involved in an attempt to 
smuggle heroin valued at $50 million by ship into Australia last month, as 
the Bush administration signaled it was set to take a much tougher line on 
Pyongyang's alleged narcotics trade.

U.S. officials have said in recent days that they believe illicit drug 
sales by North Korea play a key role in funding dictator Kim Jong Il's 
weapons programs. Officials at the U.S. military command in Seoul say 
Pyongyang earns $500 million to $1 billion annually from the drug trade.

On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said the U.S. would deal 
with North Korea's narcotics trafficking, along with its missiles and 
nuclear weapons, citing the heroin-smuggling case in Australia. Hawks 
inside the Bush administration are arguing the U.S. should seek to cordon 
off North Korean exports, either through an economic embargo or through the 
interdiction of North Korean ships.

The Australian Navy commandeered the 4,480-ton North Korean ship, the Pong 
Su, on April 20 and charged its 29 crew members with aiding and abetting 
the import of an illegal product into Australia. Australian Foreign 
Minister Alexander Downer said a member of North Korea's ruling Worker's 
Party was on board the ship, which he said was state-owned.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman said the drug-trafficking 
allegations were a "smear campaign" to pressure North Korea to end the 
standoff over its suspected nuclear-weapons programs. The government "has 
consistently been opposed to the misuse and smuggling of drug [s] and has 
nothing to do with the recent case," the spokesman was quoted as saying by 
the North's official Korean Central News Agency.

"We have informed the Australian side that the ship Pong Su is a civilian 
trading ship and the ship owner's side has no idea of this at all," the 
North Korean spokesman said. The U.S., Japan and Taiwan accuse North Korea 
of also being a major supplier of amphetamines in the Asian region.

In a 
(http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB105106006946882000,00.html?mod=artic 
le-outset-box)  front-page story in The Wall Street Journal last month, 
high-level North Korean defectors and regional intelligence officials said 
that Kim Jong Il and his late father, Kim Il Sung, were directly involved 
in developing the heroin trade. The leaders saw the opium trade as being a 
crucial means to earn hard currency, the article said.

In Australia, the opposition Labor Party on Tuesday called on the nation's 
foreign minister to deliver a stern diplomatic rebuke to North Korea if the 
government has evidence that North Korean officials were involved in the 
drug shipment. "If Mr. Downer has evidence that this vessel was introducing 
drugs to Australia on behalf of the North Korean regime, he must expel the 
North Korean ambassador, it's as simple as that," said the party's 
foreign-affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd.
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