UN AT ODDS WITH US OVER KOREAN DRUG TRADE

WASHINGTON: The United Nations is at odds with the United States over the
activities of another member of the so-called axis of evil, with its
international narcotics agency saying it has no evidence that North Korea i
s
operating an illicit drug trade.

"If you take the war in Iraq, the reason was the weapons of mass
destruction," said Herbert Schaepe, secretary of the UN International
Narcotics Control Board. "The inspectors from the [UN] atomic energy agency
did not find any; the US did not find any. Is this a good parallel?"

Diplomatic sources in North-East Asia say drugs have become one of the thre
e
main sources of revenue for the impoverished Stalinist country, along with
the export of missiles and currency counterfeiting.

Last month the US seized upon the capture by Australian special forces of
the alleged North Korean drug ship the Pong Su as evidence that Pyongyang
"thrives on criminality". Australia has also warned North Korea against
smuggling drugs into the country.

But the UN agency, while declining to comment specifically on the Pong Su
case, said it had not seen any evidence of a state-sponsored trade, althoug
h
it recognised the involvement of North Korean nationals.

Mr Schaepe said that while comparisons were problematic, he looked at the
experience of the old Soviet bloc countries. "Everything was state-run, but
still there was a lot of corruption within the system. That doesn't mean
that was accepted necessarily at the highest ranks of the country ...

"I personally do not think that even a system [like] that in North Korea is
that controllable and that uniform that parts of that system cannot engage
in things which may not be liked at the top."

While the Pong Su is state-registered and an official of the state Korean
Workers' Party was on board, diplomatic and security sources in North-East
Asia said it had been extremely difficult to prove that the North Korean
drug trade was officially sanctioned and supported.

Japanese authorities - who are fighting a multi-million-dollar trade in
methamphetamines smuggled into the country via North Korea - are also
struggling to find evidence that the regime is sponsoring the trade.

"The hard evidence we collect is not good enough to judge that the North
Korean state is involved in this illicit drug trade," said Takahiko Yasuda,
of Japan's National Police Agency. "We also cannot prove that the state of
North Korea is not involved in this crime, either."

Chief Superintendent Yasuda, who heads the police agency's drug control
division, said that over the past five years Japan had seized about 1470
kilograms of methamphetamine that had come via North Korea.

The six cases had three common characteristics: the amount was large, the
drug's purity was high, and it was neatly packaged. This implied a big,
technically skilled organisation, with plenty of capital.

Japanese politicians have voiced concern about North Korean drugs flooding
the country, reinforced by anger over Pyongyang's admission last year that
it abducted Japanese nationals 30 years ago.

"It's clearly state-run organised crime," said Takeshi Hidaka, an MP in the
opposition Liberal Party. He pointed to last year's seizure by Taiwan of 79
kilograms of heroin after it was transferred to a fishing vessel from a
North Korean Navy vessel.

Yasuhiko Yoshia, an expert on North Korea at Osaka University, also argued
that the drug trade was state-run, with the main targets Japan, Australia
and ASEAN nations. "I believe that the illicit drug trade is North Korea's
national policy to obtain foreign currency," he said.

In South Korea - still technically at war with the North - authorities have
been forthright in their accusations. A report from its National
Intelligence Service details specific poppy cultivation farms in North
Korea, under the control of its security agency and using prison labour.

The report, which appears on the service's website, says North Korea earns
up to $US100million ($158million) a year in foreign currency from its opium
cultivation, but also notes the shift to methamphetamines. Officials of the
service declined to be interviewed about the Pong Su case.

Mr Schaepe said the UN narcotics agency had visited North Korea twice, and
was shown 63 hectares of poppy cultivation that authorities said was for
licit drugs. North Korea has also sent officials to the agency's Vienna
headquarters, and has said it is looking at signing international drug
control treaties.