A New Face of North Korean Drug Use: Upsurge in Methamphetamine Abuse Across the Northern Areas of North Korea

Andrei Lankov · Seok-hyang Kim

Nov 2013 · McFarland

About this ebook

Beginning around 2005 or 2006 the northern areas of North Korea (or perhaps the country at large) were hit by a dramatic upsurge in methamphetamine abuse which can be described as a "drug epidemic."

Numerous interviews with defectors paint a worrying picture of the escalating drug abuse. This evidence comes from multiple unconnected sources, and in most cases the defectors' statements demonstrate remarkable coherence. This article outlines the ongoing methamphetamine epidemic and traces its origin and its spread throughout North Korean society. A new challenge is emerging, and we have to be prepared to deal with it, or at least to take it into account.

A New Face of North Korean Drug Use, a McFarland E-Single, originally appeared in the North Korean Review, Vol. 9, No. 1 (Spring 2013).

About the author

Andrei Lankov is a senior lecturer at the Australian National University. Suk Hi Kim, a professor of international finance, is the coordinator of finance and international business at the University of Detroit Mercy. He is the editor of North Korean Review and the founding editor of Multinational Business Review. He lives in Plymouth, Michigan. Send editorial correspondence to Suk Kim, College of Business Administration, University of Detroit Mercy, 4001 W. McNichols Road, Detroit MI 48221, tel [phone], fax [phone], [e-mail]. (Other correspondence to McFarland.)