MAGAZINE LINKS N. KOREA TO DRUGS, COUNTERFEITING

WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 (Kyodo) -- North Korea earns more than 100 million
U.S. dollars per year through state-run drug production,
counterfeiting rings and other illegal operations, according to the
latest edition of the weekly U.S. News and World Report.

Money earned from the operations may be used to fund Pyongyang's
suspected nuclear weapon development program, the magazine said,
citing in its article reports from authorities in the United States,
Japan and South Korea, as well as reports of illegal conduct by North
Korean diplomatic officials in 16 nations.

The country sets aside about 6,900 hectares of land to produce 44 tons
of opium poppies a year, and U.S. government officials say tens of
millions of dollars in food aid sent to the country may be needed in
part because so much land is used to cultivate the poppies, it said.

About 90 kilograms of heroin produced in the country is already
believed to have made its way into the U.S., the weekly reported.

North Korean diplomats have been arrested in over nine countries on
suspicion of smuggling illegal drugs such as heroin, hashish and
cocaine, it said.

North Korea-linked firms have ordered as much as 50 tons -- 20 times
the country's domestic needs -- of ephedrine, used in the production
of stimulants, the magazine said, with the main market for the
stimulants believed to be Japan.

Pyongyang is also believed to be behind the world's largest ring
counterfeiting U.S. bills, with North Korean officials having been
arrested in Cambodia, Russia, Mongolia and Macao on suspicion of using
counterfeit U.S. 100 dollar bills, it said.

The magazine quoted North Korean defectors as saying the bills are
produced at a high-security plant in Pyongyang.

North Korean officials in several countries are accused of smuggling a
range of illegal goods including pirated compact disks, fake artworks
and body parts from endangered species protected by international
treaties, it said.