Via BadGuys Blog -
Even if North Korea cracks down on its state-sponsored organized crime, the regime has backed so many criminal rackets that they may be spinning out of control, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service.
The regime has grown notorious in recent years for its far-flung criminal enterprises. The list of rackets reads like the Mafia in its heyday: massive production and trafficking of narcotics, counterfeiting of currencies and products ranging from cigarettes to Viagra, insurance fraud, and more. The criminal activity provides desperately needed hard cash to the impoverished regime and is thought to pull in anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion annually.
Investigators have documented at least 50 incidents–many involving North Korean diplomats–linking the regime to drug trafficking. But since 2003, according to CRS, no cases have surfaced directly tying the government to the traffic. Some analysts credit this to a crackdown by Washington and its allies, which may have forced the regime to pare back its criminal activity.
But not everyone is convinced; government-backed traffickers may simply be going through cutouts, working particularly through Chinese gangs across the border.
The report, by CRS national security expert Raphael Perl and economist Dick Nanto, is the latest in a series of groundbreaking studies by the group on North Korea's narcotics and counterfeiting rackets. This latest report notes that strongman Kim Jong Il still has plenty of reason to rely on criminal revenue. His government needs "slush funds designed to sustain the loyalty of a core of party elite numbering in the tens of thousands and to underwrite weapons development programs," write Perl and Nanto.
The prospects for a crackdown are not good. Even if Kim's government should decide to reform, it could be too late–the criminal activity may have grown so entrenched that it has taken on a life of its own.
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