North
Korea is starting to produce more opium in a bid to financially prop
up its regime following Chinese sanctions on its coal exports. Will
its increased opium production make it a target for the U.S.
military? History suggests this may be the case.
by
Whitney Webb
When the U.S. overthrew the
Taliban in the wake of 9/11 as part of its newly launched “war on
terror,” it set the stage for the explosive growth of Afghanistan’s
dying opium industry. A few short months before the invasion took
place, the Taliban made headlines for having “dramatically ended
the country’s massive opium trade” after the leader of the
fundamentalist group had declared the substance to be un-Islamic. At
the time, Afghanistan’s opium was used to produce 75 percent of the
world’s heroin.
But despite being squashed by the
Taliban, the opium market made a dramatic comeback immediately
following the U.S. invasion in October 2001. Not only was the opium
trade restored, it surged drastically – rising from a production
level of 185 tons under the Taliban (before the production ban) to
3,400 tons in 2002.
Over a decade later, the amount of
opium harvested annually continues to rise. Afghanistan’s opium is
now used to produce 90 percent of the world’s heroin. This increase
has been directly overseen by U.S. forces, who openly guard
Afghanistan’s poppy fields. Indeed, during that same time, the U.S.
government claims to have spent $8.4 billion on counternarcotic
programs within Afghanistan.
The dramatic increase in opium
production in post-invasion Afghanistan has sparked speculation
regarding the motives behind the aggressive action that the U.S. has
recently taken towards North Korea, which is also a major opium
producer.
While government-sanctioned opium
production took a hit after Kim Jong-un assumed power in 2011, things
have changed drastically in recent months, largely due to Chinese
sanctions that were announced in mid-February. The sanctions, created
in response to a North Korean ballistic missile test, led China to
refuse imports of North Korean coal. Coal represents 40 percent of
North Korea’s exports to China.
That drastic hit to the North
Korean economy has apparently forced Kim Jong-un’s hand, as opium
production has once again picked up. Kang Cheol-hwan, a North Korean
defector and president of the North Korea Strategy Center, told the
Yonhap News Agency that “the North is cultivating poppy fields
again for drug smuggling as a way to secure funds to manage its
regime.”
While North Korea’s opium
production is small compared to that of post-invasion Afghanistan, it
is still significant. North Korea, according to the Chosun Ilbo,
produces around 40 tons of opium annually — comparable to
Pakistan’s opium industry. Most of its opium is smuggled into and
sold in China and cannot be targeted by sanctions, since it is hard
to trace on the black market.
Some have speculated that North
Korea’s return to opium production has caught the attention of the
CIA, as the intelligence agency has a history of involving itself in
opium trade and drug-running in general, as evidenced by its
well-documented habit of managing drug supplies from Latin America to
Asia.
In addition, opioid addiction –
in the form of both legal opiate painkillers and illegal drugs – is
growing out of control in the U.S., with more opium being consumed
within America than ever before. The onset of this epidemic coincided
with the U.S.’ occupation of Afghanistan as, between 2002 and 2013,
U.S. heroin use jumped by 63 percent, reaching a 20-year high. Heroin
overdoses quadrupled in the U.S. within that same timeframe.
The U.S. government’s actions
also suggest that it seeks to protect opium production, as has been
made clear in its occupation of Afghanistan. For instance, the U.S.
vehemently opposes opium legalization efforts and the State
Department refuses to acknowledge eradicating opium as a primary
goal, despite the billions that have been spent on counternarcotic
programs.
With tension increasing on the
Korean Peninsula, the U.S. has put “all options on the table” in
order to prevent further missile tests and “provocations” from
the Kim Jong-un regime, including warnings that the U.S. may soon
find itself in a “major, major conflict” with North Korea.
If North Korea finds itself
targeted for regime change, history suggests that the U.S. military
may end up guarding its poppy fields as well.
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