Pubdate: Wed, 04 Jun 2003 Source: Advertiser, The (Australia) Copyright: 2003 Advertiser Newspapers Ltd Contact: http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1 N KOREA LINKED TO DRUG SEIZURE NORTH Korea, accused of selling weapons and illegal drugs to prop up its bankrupt regime, was linked today to a big drug seizure in South Korea. South Korea police seized 50kg of methamphetamine, a banned stimulant drug, in a raid Tuesday in the southern city of Busan, investigators said. The ship reportedly came from China through North Korea before docking at the southern port city of Busan. The United States says illegal drugs are one of North Korea's top exports, along with missiles, bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars into state coffers every year. Nearly 50 per cent of illegal drug imports into Japan originate from the Stalinist state, according to Japanese officials. "We have seized a sack of methamphetamine from a China-registered ship," an investigator in Busan told AFP, adding the drug was concealed in a container taken off the ship. He declined to give details but news reports identified the ship as the Chuxing and said it had called at North Korea's north-eastern port of Rajin on its way to Busan. "No arrests have been made so far," the investigator said. Another official said the origin of the narcotics had yet to be determined. "We need analysis of the drug to check where it came from," he said. The raid in Busan, South Korea's largest port, came amid growing concerns in Asia over North Korea's alleged state-orchestrated drug smuggling activities. Japanese officials have announced plans to boost inspections of North Korean ships calling at Japanese ports. Australia issued an official protest to North Korea after Australian special forces seized a North Korean cargo ship in April and arrested 30 crew members, who were then charged with drug smuggling along with four other persons. Pyongyang has denied that its communist government was involved in a shipment after 125 kilograms of heroin believed to be from the ship were seized. North Korea has long been accused of selling drugs and weapons to prop up its failed economy. In testimony to the US Congress on May 20, two men identified as high-ranking North Korean defectors said they had been intimately involved in test-firing Pyongyang's missiles in Iran and a state-sponsored drugs ring. One of the defectors alleged that Kim Jong-Il's regime, desperate for hard currency, produced large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine. In November 2001, South Korean authorities in Busan seized 91kg of methamphetamine believed to have been produced in North Korea. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake