Entrepreneurs Set Up Labs and Appear to Be Distributing the Drug Beyond the Borders.

YANJI, China - After the North Korean coal mine where she worked stopped paying salaries, Park Kyung Ok tried her hand at business.

Buttons and zippers, candy and dried squid, fabric, plastic tarpaulins, men's suits and cigarettes.

"I sold just about everything," said Park, 44.

But it wasn't until she started hawking methamphetamine in 2007, she said, that she was able to earn a living.

Methamphetamine, known as orum, or "ice," is a rare commodity manufactured and sold in North Korea, where most factories sit idle, the equipment rusted or looted. The North Korean government once produced the drug, and others that are illicit in the West. Resourceful entrepreneurs have since set up their own small facilities, and evidence suggests that they are distributing the drug beyond the nation's borders.

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BALTIMORE -- Participants in the historic Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity already have tried to hold Mexico responsible for the violent drug war that its government estimates has claimed at least 60,000 victims and devastated families.

Now, they want the United States to accept its share of blame.

The caravan set off in mid-August from Mexico City on a journey to 27 cities - many in border states - to raise awareness about the drug war. The caravan, sometimes including up to 500 participants in cars and buses, was scheduled to end last week in Washington, D.C.

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If law enforcement figures are any guide, Korea's illegal drug problem pales in comparison with much of the rest of the world. There were 7,011 arrests for drug offenses in 2011, according to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, a 7 percent drop from the previous year. The U.S., by way of comparison, in 2010 made more than 1.6 million drug arrests, more than 36 times Korea's figure, even after differences in population are accounted for.

"Korea is a relatively drug-free country," said Hwang Sung-hyun, a professor of criminology at Cyber University. "Internationally, the qualification of a drug-free country is whether there are more than 10,000 narcotics-related convicts. In the case of Korea, from 1999 to 2002, the number reached more than 10,000 for four consecutive years, but from 2003 to 2006, the number was reduced to 7,000 and in 2007, the numbers again reached more than 10,000."

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Dear editor,

There is a middle ground between drug prohibition and blanket legalization. Switzerland's heroin maintenance program has been shown to reduce disease, death and crime among chronic users. Providing addicts with standardized doses in a clinical setting eliminates many of the problems associated with illicit heroin use. The success of the Swiss program has inspired heroin maintenance pilot projects in Canada, Germany, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands.

If expanded, prescription heroin maintenance would deprive organized crime of a core client base. This would render illegal heroin trafficking unprofitable and spare future generations addiction.

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BUENOS AIRES - In January, U.S. President Barack Obama nominated Marine Corps Lieutenant General John F. Kelly to head the United States Southern Command (USSOUTHCOM). Based in Miami, Fla., USSOUTHCOM runs military operations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, and is the key U.S. "drug warrior" in the region. Across the region, the key question, among civilian and military leaders alike, is whether the change in commanders will bring with it a change in focus.

The top priority for USSOUTHCOM is to fight narcotics trafficking from the Andes to the Rio Grande. With the Cold War's end, fighting communism was no longer the U.S. armed forces main objective; USSOUTHCOM increasingly concentrated on pursuing coercive anti-drug initiatives, and funds to fight the drug war were plentiful. But the change in commanders is an opportunity for the U.S. to revise, at long last, its regional doctrine in order to address other pressing security needs.

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