{"id":4822,"date":"2021-01-27T12:14:05","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T03:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/?p=4822"},"modified":"2021-03-11T17:26:39","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T08:26:39","slug":"conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/2021\/01\/society-economy\/conditions\/","title":{"rendered":"\uff1cInside N. Korea\uff1e Housewives-turned-dealers Sell Meth Hidden in Masks as Drug Use Reaches a High under Desperate COVID-19 Conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

(Photo) A \"No Smuggling and Drug Trafficking\" sign set up by the Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China. Photographed in July 2017 by ISHIMARU Jiro<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u25c6 No choice but to become drug dealers<\/h2>\n

It has been almost a year since the strict coronavirus prevention measures started. The economy has become increasingly paralyzed and people are wandering around on the brink of starvation because they no longer have any cash income. As a result, with poverty and hunger spreading across the country, methamphetamine drug crimes are on the rise and the authorities are struggling to crack down on them. \u3000(Kang Ji-won)<\/em><\/p>\n

So why is methamphetamine use increasing even though people are living in poverty and have no money? On January 18, after the 8th Congress of the Workers\u2019 Party of Korea finished, a reporting partner living in Ryanggang Province reported on the spread of methamphetamine after interviewing police officers and examining notices posted by the authorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrade with China has been halted due to COVID-19 countermeasures and, in addition, business has been completely shut down due to stricter controls. Ordinary people are living in very bad conditions now. There are many people who have no money to buy the food they need for the day, so they must borrow money or sell their household goods. These people have no choice but to turn to trafficking in 'hiropon' (methamphetamine),\u201d<\/strong> says the reporting partner.<\/p>\n

According to the reporting partner, these days the selling price of methamphetamine is 120-150 Chinese yuan per gram. (100 Chinese yuan is about US$15.38), and it is sold in small packages of 0.1 gram. The retail price is said to be about 10,000 won in North Korean currency for a 0.1-gram package (10,000 won is about US$1.63 on January 20).<\/p>\n

It seems that the increase in the use of methamphetamine after the COVID-19 outbreak is a national trend. Another reporting partner living in Hoeryong, North Hamgyong Province, spoke with ASIAPRESS about the reasons why sales of small quantities of methamphetamine are spreading locally.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore and more people are turning to methamphetamine as a way of giving up and escaping from a life of poverty and uncertainty. In previous years, methamphetamine was smuggled from chemical factories in Hamhung and Pyongsong, and transported to various other places but recently smuggling hubs have been established in a variety of rural areas and the supply chain has become more diverse too. Most of the traffickers are housewives who do not have to commute to work.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

NextPage: \u25c6 People even take out a mortgage on... <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u25c6 People even take out a mortgage on their house and sell their household goods in order to get their hands on methamphetamine<\/h2>\n

The reporting partner from Ryanggang Province was surprised by the reality of methamphetamine trafficking after interviewing a police officer he knew.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the police entered the house of a trafficker that they had arrested in Hyesan, they found a lot of things the trafficker had taken as collateral, including household goods from other people's houses, clothes, and three TV sets. They even found a \u2018residence certificate\u2019 for a house.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

A \u2018residence certificate\u2019 is a proof of residence registration and is akin to a deed in North Korea. In North Korea, houses are state-owned and cannot be sold, so the \u2018residence certificates\u2019 are traded among people. One can only assume that the cost of methamphetamine is so high that people need to mortgage their house to pay for it.<\/p>\n

\u25c6 The police don\u2019t arrest skinny drug addicts as \u201cthey will die anyway\u201d<\/h2>\n

A reporting partner explained, \u201cMethamphetamine users are often found in an emaciated condition, just skin and bones and no household goods when the safety officer goes to arrest them. \u2018There\u2019s no point in arresting people who are going to die anyway, so we sometimes just leave them there and go back,\u2019 a safety officer told me. No wonder the authorities are having a hard time dealing with them.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition, it is also reported that there is a lot of fraudulent behavior among dealers. Some of the dealers buy large amounts of methamphetamine from wholesale traffickers, promising to pay later, and then sell it at retail, but never pay for it. One dealer confessed to having been scammed, and a number of such people had been caught, says the reporting partner.<\/p>\n

Kim Jong-un's regime is not watching from the sidelines and doing nothing while methamphetamine and drug crimes are being committed. Rather, they are responding much more aggressively than they did during the Kim Jong-il era. So, in order to avoid detection, dealers pretend to trade masks and cut holes in the edges of masks to put methamphetamine inside them.<\/p>\n

\n
\uff1cRelated Article\uff1e<\/div>\n