Editor’s Note: The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea report, “Illicit: North Korea’s Evolving Operations to Earn Hard Currency,” by Sheena Chestnut Greitens is attached here. Below is an excerpt.
From: The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
At least two sources of funding and management appeared to exist for these counterfeit cigarette factories. The industry report alleged that three of the production facilities in the Rajin area were run or financed by Taiwan organized crime syndicates, and the cigarettes produced there were intended for—and shipped primarily to—the Taiwan market. At least two of the factories in the Pyongyang area, however—the Linglou Island 888 Cigarette Factory and the Dongyang Cigarette Factory (run by Kosanbong)—were said to be owned and operated by companies of the North Korean military and security services. If true, this would further increase the percentage of revenue that went to the regime itself, above the figures cited in the preceding paragraph.71 A third factory, the Daesong Cigarette Factory, was run by the Daesong conglomerate, which also managed the Zokwang/Chogwang Trading Company, which was linked to a number of counterfeit currency seizures in Macau in the late 1990s.72
