CRIMINAL SOVEREIGNTY: UNDERSTANDING NORTH KOREA’S ILLICIT INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITIES

The authors of this monograph have exposed a key piece
of the puzzle which helps to provide a better understanding
of North Korea’s surreptitious international behavior. For
years, North Korea’s military provocations have been
obvious to the world, however, much of its decisionmaking
is shrouded in secrecy, particularly that of a wide-range of
clandestine activities. This monograph is unique in the way
that it sheds light on the illicit activities of the regime, and
how those illegal activities are used to support its military
programs and the government itself.
From drug trafficking to counterfeiting, from money
laundering to cigarette smuggling, North Korea’s Central
Committee Bureau 39 is an active participant in the criminal
economy of the region with tentacles extending well beyond
Asia. The authors discuss how these activities have negative
strategic consequences for a number of stakeholders and
nations throughout the region while describing how such
activities provide critical funding streams for military
programs and regime supporters.
As a result, North Korea is not just a “rogue state,” but
practices what is essentially criminal sovereignty whereby
it organizes its illegitimate activities behind the shield
of non-intervention while using the tools of the state to
perpetrate these schemes abroad. The authors argue that
this arrangement has important links to succession issues
within the regime. They also argue that policy makers who
are concerned with the development of future policies and
strategies aimed toward North Korea must view those new
policies from a different perspective than that used in the
past.