Japanese newspapers are reporting that the amount of drug seizures in the country has fallen drastically due to the siezure of a North Korean drug smuggling vessel in May.
According to the National Police Agency, there has been over an 85% drop in drug seizures compared to the same time last year.
There are however a few things that should be mentioned here.
For starters, it is no particular secret that the government of North Korea makes some serious coin from drug smuggling - usually heroin. Drug shipments have been intercepted on their way to China, Japan and even Australia where a North Korean official was even arrested on the drug vessel. Being so strapped means that Kim Jong Il and the boys have to get a little inventive with their cash flow situation and smuggling helps fill the gap.
On the other hand, there is a massive animosity between Korea (especially North Korea) and Japan - with anti-Korean and anti-Japanese propaganda being aired on an almost daily basis in either country. Therefore reports that the interception of one drug shipment from North Korea single-handedly destroyed the drug problem in Japan should be taken with a grain of salt.
While it is difficult to argue with the figures per se, the cause of the drop in drug seizures is probably not as black and white as this report would have us believe (for example, maybe the smugglers simply got better at avoiding detection!)
The report could also just as easily have emphasised the Japanese Yakuza’s involvement and collaboration with North Korean drug smugglers, yet the involvement of Japanese citizens in the trade is not mentioned at all - a glaring ommission, but one that aids in casting the North Koreans as the clear bad guys.
In short, this piece is a fairly classic example of the issue of drugs being used in thinly veiled propaganda.
But then again, the best propaganda always has an element of truth.
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