According to a published report South Korean newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, North Korea ordered diplomats from a number of foreign embassies in North Korea to sell illegal drugs on the streets, or face expulsion.

A defector who spoke to South Korean Intelligence said the diplomats were each sent out of North Korea with 20 kilograms of drugs and ordered to sell them and raise $300,000 (R2,7 million) each from the sales.

The diplomats were told to be drug merchants and refrain from their “ambassadorial responsibilites” and sell drugs in order “to prove their loyalty and mark the birthday of nation founder Kim Il Sung on April 15.”

The story reports that each embassy was required to recruit at least ten of its diplomats as drug dealers and produce revenue of $3 million (R27,8 million) per foreign mission.

The pressure by North Korean authorities on foreign embassies in that country is seen as an extension of the Niorth Korean state practice of selling high quality meth in China.

The country is in desperate need of hard currency to make up for its economic isolation. Most of the country lives in poverty, while Pyongyang runs a mini, parallel economy to couch ruler Kim Jong Un and his entourage in luxury. Room 39, a secrative government office manages the “dirty money” income from their meth exports and business scams, while useing that cash flow to import high quality food and liquor for their reveared leader, Kim Jong Un.

But North Korea’s export meth trade is slowly seeping into local society. With increasing poverty levels and citizens not being afforded proper health care, they are resorting to meth as an “all cure drug.”

[Source: Washington Post]